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AN ADDRESS » 

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ON 



THE LIFE AND CHARACTER 



OF 



JOHN CALDWELL CALHOUN. 



DELIVERED. 



iEK'RE THE CITiZSlfS 0? MOTOOMERY, ALABMAA; 



ON THF. 



FOURTH JULY, 1850. 



BY WILLIAM L. YANCEY. 



MONTGOMERY: 

JOB OFFICE ADVERTISER A^•D GAZETTE PRINT. 

1850. 



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CocvcBponUcnce 



Montgomery, July 6, 1850. 
Hon. W. L. Yancey : — 

Dear Sir : 

The undersigned, committee, d:c., were 
highly gratitled with the manner in which you discharged the duty 
assigned you by them, and hereby tender you our congratulations and 
thanks for the truly able and eloquent eulogy delivered by you, on yes- 
terday, upon the life, genius and public services of the late illustrious 
Carolinian — Xopin Caldwell Calhoun. 

We beg that you will yield to our wishes, and those of the great body 
of our fellow-citizens, and will furnish us with a copy of the address for 
Dublicatioti. 

If 

We have the honor to be, sir, 

With great respect, 

Your obedient servants, 

J. J. SEIBEI.S, ) 

J. A. ELMORE, } Commutee. 

'■\ Y. FAIR, ) 



Montgomery, July 6, 1850. 
Gentlemen : / 

In accordance with the request contained in your note of yesterday 

I herewith transmit to you the address, on the life and character of Mn 

Calhoun, delivered by me on the 4th instant. 

Your obedient servant, 

W. L. YANCEY. 

To Col. J. J. Seieels, ^ 

J. A. Elmore, Esq., /■ Committee. V 



Gen. E. Y. Fair, ) 



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t 



M 




ADDRESS. 



Fellow-Citizens : ,^^ 

John C. Calhoun died, in the City of Washington, on 
the 31st of March last. Our great countryman had long 
known that 

" The duties of life are more than life ;" 

and had crowded the years of his existence with deeds 
of goodness. Having lived in the performance of duty, he 
found it easy to submit himself with cheerfulness to the 
closing duty of life — to surrender his spirit to God^v/ith 
•'an unfaltering trust." 

But to the country, and to the section, of both of which 
he was the pride and glory, his death was a most unpropi- 
tious event. Dark as is the storm, which had long been 
gathering in our horizon, and now rages with portentous 
power, we ever had a cheering hope while that^eteran 
pilot trod the deck. Now that he has gone, who is there 
in our midst that does not fancy that the wild winds howl 
in fiercer gusts through the rigging — that the mighty waves 
roll higher, and beat upon our vessel with a more engulph- 
ing power — that the seething deep yawns darker And more 
horribly beneath the trembling prow ? His death occurred 
at a time when the two great divisions of our country — the 
North and the South — were arrayed against each other upon 
a sectional question of vital importance — when the public 
mind exhibited a more high-wrought intensity and bitter^^ 
ness of feeling in reference to the issue, than had been 
manifested at any previous period in our history. 

Thirty years ago, v/hen the sound of this great contro- 
versy in one of its terrible phases rolled through the coun- 



^^^Fj 



try, and men became awakened to the imminence of the 
crisis, Mr. Jefferson described it, in the most ominous and 
striking language, as like " the sound of the fire bell at 
midnight." And who that has ever heard that solemn 
bell — its tones breaking suddenly on the dull ear of -night, 
startling the quiet sleeper from his pleasant dream : arous- 
ing an alarmed population to witness the crackling, leaping 
and restraintless flames, as they pierce the thick darkness 
that lays upon the city like a pall — consuming with equal 
avidity the proud dwelling and the humble tenement — 
,p remorselessly sparing nothing, not even the forms of what 
it cannot wholly destroy, will fail to appreciate the force 
and the harrowing truth of Mr. Jefferson's remark ! 

Years passed on ; and again this topic breaks upon the 
ear. A demon spirit is in the midsc of a Christian brother- 
hood. It formed a united, powerful, religious denomi- 
nation, with an ecclesiastical government co-extensive with 
our whole country — whose morning and evening orisons 
ascended from the fisherman's hut, moist with the spray 
of the Atlantic, and were heard in the far distant cabin of 
the hardy pioneer, on the verge of the Western prairie. 
Even the bands which united these men together were 
broken by this fell spirit ; and communion between the 
slaveholder and his assailant was dissolved. ^ 

Time rolled on ; and this evil genius of our country 
. is seen sittinof in the Senate Hall. Our people Iiave 
emerged from a war, covered with military glory. The 
American name has been made to blaze in brilliancy before 
the v/orkl, as that of a people possessing every, requisite of 
a high m.ilitary character ; and their government has been 
demonstrated to be as energetic and prompt in war, as it is 
acknowledged to be eminently fitted for the development 
A of the policies of peace. The stars and the stripes have 
been consecrated as the symbols of victory. The gallant 
dead of our armies lay entombed in a common grave, fallen 
in a commoiir cause ; and besides these joint, indivisible 
glories, we have brought as trophies, from the fields of our 
Victories and renovvui, immense territorial possessions. 



7 

Shall the enjoyment of these territories be common to all ? 
strange to say, is the theme on which that Senate delibe- 
rates. 

Encouraged by the success qf its encroachments upon 
the South in 1820— inspirited by its fell and unhappy 
triumph in dividing a Christian brotherhood, whose sacred 
bond of union was hallowed by the blood of the Redeemer, 

' that evil genius, from a place which it had usurped in the 
Seijate, was assailing in haughty arrogance the very citadel 
of our institutions. 

In the midst of those grave and reverend Senators, was 
one of tall and attenuated, but of most commanding form', 
upon whose broad brow Dignity, Truth and sage Experi- 
ence had set their impress— while genius flashed from the 
depth of those brilliant eyes, and Eloquence and Logic re- 

• cognized their own, in the tones of his voice. Though 
conscious that even then death was snapping asunder the 
cords of his life, and that eternity, with its vast issues, 
was about opening to his view, he still lingered upon the 
scene of his renown, and once again essayed an effort in 
behalf of the rights of the South. That last effort was fit 
to crown the noble column which for long years the great 
Senator had been erecting to bis renown as a statesman. 
an orator and a patriot. The simplicity and clearness of 
its statements— its calm and dispassionate reasoning — the 
conclusiveness of its deductions — its splendid analysis of 
the causes of the present evil and the undeniable justness of 
the remedy proposed — its chaste and fervid patriotism and 
passionless style, so becoming one who but paused on the 
verge of eternity to counsel with his countrymen, combined 
to make this one of the mightiest and most effective 
speeches ever delivered in her behalf by the great cham- 
pion of the South. It made the cause of the South theri 
cause of the Union. It placed that cause high upon the 
altar of the constitution — only to be i cached and disp'aced 
by a destruction of the temple of which that constitution 
was the palladium. 

This last effort o'er, the great statesman turned him 




•^■'^--^^- 




8 

aside to die : and soon in the stillness of early morn, with 
voice hardly less clear and firm, than when he addressed 
list'ning senates, he announced the -hour of his own dis- 
solution to be at hand ; •and casting back upon Time but 
one wish — that he could have been spared another hour in 
the service of his deeply loved — and even in that last mo- 
ment of existence — his yet remembered country, his mighty 
and pure spirit hopefully and unfalteringly entered into 
eternity. 

Such a death — of such a man— upon such an arena — 
and in the midst of such a crisis, could hardly fail to arrest 
public attention, in an unusual degree. But who, even 
among the most enthusiastic admirers of the immortal 
Southerner, expected to see 



a :k 



* * each separating plea, 
Of sect, clime, party, and degree," 

waived in the midst of the discussion of such a topic, in 
honor of his uncompromising virtue ; and to behold even 
the fierce spirit of Fanaticism let fall a tear over the grave 
of the matchless champion of Southern Rights ? 

Death, for a brief moment, seemed to revive again the 
spirit of ancient brotherhood in the American heart. The 
gifted and the good every where have mourned for his 
loss, and have sought every appropriate mode to give 
expression to their deep sense of the bereavement sus- 
tained by the whole country. 

But to the South peculiarly belongs the sacred duty of 
perpetuating the memory of his noble virtues and his 
splendid intellect — of wreathing his wide renown with 

•' A chaplet glittering with the tears she sheds." 

For her he lived. That he might have no rival to her, in 
his heart, he early sacrificed the bright hopes of a lofty and 
honorable ambition ; and with a truth and singleness of 
devotion, which has no parallel in her history, he served her- 
till the very hour of his death ,• and dying, craved of insa- 
tiate time one hour more, that he might devote it to her 



^- ■■■■'. 



We have met to-day, fellow-citizens, to perform our 
part of that grateful, though mournful duty which the 
South owes to the memory of such a statesman. And if 
as true to our own best interests as he proved true to the 
South, we shall engrave his principles and his virtues 
deeply upon the tablets of our hearts, and with the pious 
eare of Old Mortality, we shall ever deepen the lines which 
time would stealthily erase. 

I esteem it a happy privilege to have been chosen to be 
your representative on this occasion in the portraiture of 
the brilliant genius and moral grandeur of John C. Calhoun.- 
But proud as is that privilege, it cannot be disguised that it 
imposes a most delicate and difRcult task. I have ap- 
proached to its performance with a diffidence, that every 
one here will appreciate, who is at all acquainted with the 
political history of the last twenty years. I have to 
address Nullifiers and Union men — Tariff men and anti- 
Tariff — advocates of a National Bank, raid friends of the 
Independent Treasury — Whigs and Democrats, upon sub- 
jects which yet excite and divide the great parlies, and in a 
place where that division is maintained with as much 
rigidity and excited feeling as in any other of equal size 
and intelligence. But I should be unworthy of your con- 
fidence — unfit to address you in commendation of such a 
character as that of John C. Calhoun, were I to shackle the 
tongue of truth in delineating the great events of his time 
— were I not to speak fearlessly and candidly, but I trust, 
dispassionately, in relation to the men and measures that 
are so intimately — nay, so inseparably interwoven with his 
political career. Then, 

" * * * hear me for my cause ;" 

and, as the character of the deceased statesman belongs 
alone to history, it is incumbent upon us to judge it with 
that stern impartiality, with which she contemplates the 
mighty hosts that throng her tribunal. 

Two thousand years ago, an illustrious Roman, in 
addressing a multitude of his countrymen, pointing to the 




10 

bleeding corpse of '' the greatest Roman of them all," said : 

" But yesterday, the word of Caesar might have stood against the 
world ; now lies he there, and none so poor to do him reverence !" 

How different with the name of the great American we 
this day mourn ! Death has no control over it, but to 
sanctify — no effect, but to remove the only barriers to its 
wide and widening influence. There lies he ; and none 
so stern and proud, that bow not in sorrow o'er his grave — 
none so wise, but yield an unaffected tribute to his genius 
and acquirements — none so powerful^ but do him reverence ! 
The study of such a character is calculated at all times ^- to 
raise the genius and to mend the heart." The greater the 
advance which shall be made by his countrymen in virtue 
and intelligence and in the science of self-government, the 
higher will it be held as a model, both of public and of 
private excellence. 

It is not my purpose to give any thing like a biographical 
sketch of Mr. Calhoun, further than may be necessary to 
show the nature of his intellect, his character as a citizen, 
public and ^private, his views of our constitution, and his 
influence upon the events of his time. There are two 
grand divisions of his political life, apparent to ev^ery obser- 
ver, in which he acted upon entirely distinct, though not 
conflicting, principles. The one period embraces his career 
as a member of the House of Representatives in the 
Congress of the United States, from 1811 to 1817,* in 
which the government was weakened by fierce, intestine, 
party divisions at a time when it required to be strength- 
ened, to enable it to resist external pressure. The other 
period embraces his Senatorial career, in which has taken 
place a mighty struggle as to the relative rights and powers 
of the several States and of the General Government. In 
the contests of both epoch, Mr. Calhoun took a leading 
part, and upon each era has left an abiding impress of his' 
commanding genius and pure patriotism. 

When Mr. Calhoun took his seat in Congress in the fall 
of 1811, it was after but a brief intellectual preparation for 



11 

the great conflicts and important labors which were reserved 
for him. He had but ten years previously commenced his 
education, and within that time had graduated at Yale 
College with the highest distinction — had received a 
thorough legal education— had practised law with marked 
success— and following the bent of his inclination, as 
clearly indicated by the subject of his commencement 
address — " the qualifications necessary to constitute a per- 
fect statesman,'' had turned his attention to pohtics, and 
had been elected a member of the twelfth Congress. 

The questions then engaging the attention of that body, 
were all of a nature so grave, so important, involving the 
very independence of the country — the men Vvdio compos- 
ed the House, of which he became a member, were of such 
brilliant abilities, of such towering reputation — were such 
tried and eloquent statesmen, that the young Carolinian 
misht well have served throudi that Congress, w^ithout 
acquiring prominence or distinction, in its important dis- 
cussions, and yet not have detracted from that high char- 
acter for ability, which he enjoyed among his constituents. 

Mr. Clay has said that such "a galaxy of eminent and 
able men, has not been assembled in any other Congress 
since he entered the public service ;" yet, the same high 
authority assures us — high, with reference to his own 
genius, and almost matchless oratory and skill in legisla- 
tive debate — high, with reference to his intimate knov/- 
ledge of the' facts upon which he rendered his opinion, and 
with reference to tlie position he has occupied in the poli- 
tical world, — that " amongst that splendid constellation, 
none shone more bright and brilliant, than the star which 
is nov/ set.*' 

"Splendid,'' indeed, might Mr. Clay call that assemblage. 
There was that renowned and eccentric Virginian, John 
Randolph, whose sparkling genius, biting wit, scathing 
invective, and skill in parliamentary controversy, made 
him one of the most dancrerous antagonists to encounter, 
which any legislative assembly had ever produced. 

There, too. was Cheves : a man of comprehensive in- 



12 

tellect, ot sound and matured judgment and high charac- 
ter, which, in the next Congress, elevated him to the 
Speaker's chair— yet redolent with the grace and genius 
of a Clay. 

There, too, was Lowndes — the pure and the gifted 
Lowndes ; upon whose early made tomb, his friends might 
well be content to inscribe the just language of Daniel 
Webster — ''that great and good Carolinian." 

There, too, was Clay : the ardent, impetuous, gallant- 
hearted statesman of the West, whose eloquence has elec- 
trified eloquent senates — whose skill in all matters of 
parliamentary proceedings, and wnose indomitable will, 
never failing energies and elastic courage, so well qualify 
him to be a leader amongst leaders. 

There, too, was Grundy; undoubtedly one of the rnost 
skilled and successful criminal advocates who ever addres- 
sed a jury, and a parliamentary debater of great power. 

Meeting him in the next Congress,, came Gaston ; who, 
became one of the m.ost learned and accomplished jurists, 
that ever graced the judiciary of any State— And GIuincy, 
whose fluent and graceful eloquence, and biting sarcasm, 
made him justly the pride of Massachuset'j — And Web- 
ster — Daniel Webster ; whose every movement, physi- 
cal and intellectual, is of most impressive dignity ; whose 
style and diction is full of eloquence ^^iid purity j whose 
imagination is so chastened and poetical — whose intellect 
is so profound and so comprehensive, as to have caused his 
admiring friends, with questionable propriety, to have styl- 
ed him "the God-like" — Webster! whose name is em- 
balmed, in some of the choicest specimens of logic and 
eloquence, to be found in the English, or in any other lan- 
guage. Thus high was held the standard by which the 
measure of the young Carolinian's intellectual and political 
stature was to be taken. 

As I have said, too, the questions at issue were of the 
highest importance — involving vast consequences, no less 
than the honor and independence of the country. Our 
rights as a neutral nation, during the gigantic and terrible 



13 

wars which for years had raged between the belligerent 
powers of Europe, had been totally disregarded, (and par- 
ticularly so by Great Britain,) in their eager attempt to 
cripple, and to destroy each other's resources. So com- 
plete had been made our commercial vassalage, that no 
American vessel could reach a European market, save 
through an English port. The manifests of our merchant 
vessels— the roll of our ships of war were not safe from an 
insulting inspection by British officers: and our seamen 
were impressed, on any deck, private or national, when- 
ever caprice or English naval exigencies suggested. 

But though these exactions and insults v/ere annoying and 
mortifying, our commerce had become prosperous to an un- 
precedented degree. We were the carriers of the bellige- 
rent world : and while the nation suffered in character and 
^rew poor in spirit, our merchants and ship-builders ac- 
cumulated fortunes. The government was young— but in 
the gristle, as it were. Our leading statesmen were men 
of peace— too philosophically wise— too timid—too deeply 
impressed with the prevalent idea, that a republican gov- 
ernment was inherently weak, in a contest of arms. 
Hence, when our rights were trampled upon, and our flag 
insulted ; when American citizens were forcibly torn from 
the decks of our ships, and made to fight the battles of 
England ; when all reparation was refused ; when meagre 
apology was quickly followed by renewed wrong and in- 
sult, instead of adopting energetic measures for prompt 
resistance, and appealing to the courage and patriotism of 
the people to sustain them, the authorities of that day re- 
lied upon the negative virtues of what has been called the 
restrictive system — upon embargoes — upon non-importa- 
tion and non-intercourse acts ; and that all things might 
harmonise with this system of unwise inactivity, our navy 
was laid up and our guns were transferred to gun-boats. 
The charm of British naval invincibility lay like an incubus 
upon the world. In addition to all this, the Federal party 
seemed violently opposed to war with England, and even 
to the inactive measures adopted. 



14 

The policy of both the administration and of the oppo- 
sition, though adopted with an entirely different aim and 
purpose, instead of permitting and encouraging the ener- 
gies and indignation of the people to expand, in every ag- 
gressive form, as the best preservative of national honor, 
tended directly to deaden the national spirit and sensibili- 
ty, and to prepare them for ignominious submission to 
wrong. 

There were some gallant spirits, however, who were 
resolved to work a change, if possible, in the policy of the 
government. Among them was Mr. Calhoun ; and he 
signalised his advent into the councils of the country, at 
an early day in the' session, by a speech in reply to Mr. 
Randolph, and in advocacy of an immediate and extensive 
preparation for war. His cotemporaries have told us that 
the sententious, condensed and powerful logic of that first 
effort — the ardent and lofty patriotism vv^hich breathed in 
its every line — the elevated sentiments with which it 
abounded — the manliness with which he met the whole 
question at issue, announced the dawn of a new era in our 
political history, in the rise of a young statesman distin- 
guished by the possession of the highest faculties of the 
mind, and of the noblest qualities of the heart. Said the 
Richmond Enquirer, of that day, "he reminds us of the 
old sages of the old Congress, but with all the graces of 
youth. We hail this young Carolinian as one of those 
master spirits, who stamp their names upon the age in 
which they live." 

Believinsr forbearance had ceased to be a virtue, Mr. 
Calhoun commenced his career by a direction of all his 
energies to the one great purpose of preparing the country 
to enter upon, and to honorably and successfully conduct, 
a war with Great Britain. To do this, not only were seve- 
ral favorite measures of his own party to be attacked and 
repealed, but the hearts of his countrymen were to be 
reached and emboldened to look the danger in the face — 
the flame of patriotic ardor and indignation was to be 
enkindled in their bosoms. The inertness of the restric- 



15 

tive policy was to be overcome as a necessary preliminary to 
the adoption of more active measures. The true greatness, 
the grasp, comprehensiveness and courage of Mr. Calhoun's 
intellect were thus early developed, in that series of mag- 
nificent parliamentary movements by which he aimed to 
strike the shackles which had been imposed by the 
restrictive system, not only from the commerce, but, what 
in his estimation was of far more vital importance, from the 
heart of the nation. To realise the undaunted high char- 
acter of the intellect which thus threw so young a man into 
the lead upon such great questions, and among such a body 
of compeers, it must be borne in mind that the policy he 
arraigned had its origin in the cabinet of Mr. Jefferson and 
was decidedly sustained by the popular administration of 
Mr. Madison. But no precedent or authority, however 
high — no party, however strong, has ever deterred Mr. Cal- 
houn from pursuing what he believed to be the true inte- 
rests of the country. Seeing r.learly how much this system 
of restrictions was at war with the genius of our people and 
of our government, he opposed its continuance ; and, appre- 
ciating the dangers of the contest at hand, he advocated a 
policy in full sympathy with the character of the people 
who were to sustain it. The argument used by him it 
may not be amiss, in part, to quote here, as a specimen of 
the reasoning and lofty eloquence which then distinguished 
him. It bears all the characteristics of some of his most 
powerful Senatorial efforts — sententious, logical, full of 
compressed energy of thought, abounding in lofty senti- 
ment, appealing to and arousing the highest and noblest 
passions. Said Mr. Calhoun : 

•'The difference is almost ipJiiiite between the passive and the active 
state of the mind. Tie down a hero, and he feels the puncture of a pin : 
throw him into battle, and he is almost insensible to vital gashes. So in 
war. Impelled alternately by hope and fear, stimulated by revenge, 
depressed by shame or elevated by victory, th^ people become invincible. 
No privation can shake their fortitude ; no calamity break their spirit. 
Even when equally successful, the contrast between the two systems 
is striking. War and restriction may leave the country equally 
exhausted, but the latter not only leaves you poor, but even when suc- 
cessful, dispirited, divided, discontented, with diminished patriotisrp, and 



16 

the morals of a considerable portion of your people corrupted. Not so in 
war. In that state, the common danger unites all, strengthens the bonds 
of society, and feeds the flame of patriotism. The national character 
mounts to energy. In exchange for the expenses and privations of war, 
you obtain military and naval skill, and a more perfect organization of 
such parts of your administration as are connected with the science of 
national defence. Sir, are these advantages to be counted as trifles in the 
present state of the world? Can they be measured by moneyed valua- 
tion ? I would prefer a single victory over the enemy, by sea or land, to 
all the good we shall ever derive from the continuation of the non-impor- 
tation act. I know not that a victory would produce an equal pressure 
on the enemy, but I am certain of what is of greater consequence, it 
would be accompanied by more salutary effects on ourselves. The 
memory of Saratoga, Princeton and Eutaw is immortal. It is there you 
will find the country's boast and pride— the inexhaustible source of great 
and heroic sentiments. But v/hat will history say of restriction ? What 
examples worthy of imitation will it furnish to posterity? What pride, 
what pleasure, will our children find in the events of such times ? Let 
me not be considered romantic. This nation ought to be taught to rely 
on its courage, its fortitude, its skill and virtue, for protection. These 
are the only safeguards in the hour of danger. Man was endowed with 
these great qualities for his defence. There is nothing about him that 
indicates that he is to conquer by endurance. He is not incrusted in a 
shell. He is not taught to rely upon his insensibility, his passive suffering, 
for defence. No, sir ; it is on the invincible mind, on a magnanim.ous 
nature, he ought to rely. Here is the superiority of our kind ; it is these 
that render man the lord of the world; it is the destiny of his condition 
that nations rise above nations, as they are endowed in a greater degree 
with these brilliant qualities." 

The House very soon appreciated the high qualities of 
the young member from South Carolina, and before six 
months had elapsed from his entry into public life, he was 
made Chairman of its most important Committee, that on 
Foreign Affairs, and as such, in June, 1812, he reported 
the bill providing for the declaration of war. 

The course of Mr. Calhoun upon the Navy question 
deserves a particular notice. It had been the policy of the 
Republican party not to increase the navy— to make no 
preparations for offensive operations on the ocean. He 
gave a cordial support, however, to a bill reported by Mr. 
Cheves, placing the navy on a war footing — making it a 
reliable arm of power. He saw that on the ocean. Great 
Britain, from the vast extent of her possessions, must be 



17 

vulnerable, notwithstanding her fleets were so numerous — 
that she required a naval force of greatly superior numbers, 
while, owing to the compactness of our position and our 
distance from the seat of her power, a much smaller num- 
ber of vessels of war would answer our purposes, for both 
defensive and offensive operations. Pie reasoned correctly 
too, that we had all the elements to constitute an effective 
navy, in a commercial marine that had grown and flour- 
ished for many years to an unprecedented extent. Our 
ships, as a consequence of the success of the bill, were sent 
forth upon the ocean to contest the prize of naval supre- 
macy with the vaunted mistress of the seas : and what a 
flood of glory was soon shed over the stars and the stripes 
as the result! Who can estimate the influence which 
those repeated splendid naval victories had, in cheering the 
drooping spirits of our armies — in keeping alive the fire of 
patriotic resistance in the bosoms of our countrymen — in 
nerving them for greater endurance, and more heroic 
efforts, in their great struggle with the haughty victors of 
Napoleon ? The sounds of the American guns, as they 
swept in tt)nes of victory over the wave to our shores, not 
only cheered the great popular heart, but their reverbera- 
tion in the halls of Congress materially aided the friends of 
tiie war in the unnatural and unhappy struggles which they 
had to encounter with its opponents. In one of those de- 
bates, taking advantage of the termination of the gigantic 
contest in Europe, by which England had become free to 
turn her undivided strength against our country, armed in 
all that terrible panoply of war with which she had led the 
van in the attack and triumph over Napoleon, the opposi- 
tion made renewed and reinvigorated attacks upon the 
conductors of the war — in seemingly exultant tones pointed 
to the apparently immense disparity of means possessed by 
the two powers for war, and proclaimed it hopeless longer 
to contend in so unequal a contest. Nothing daunted, full 
of cheering hope and high courage, his eagle glance 
piercing the lurid atmosphere of that dark moment, and 
seeinsf and feelincr the latent elements which were at work 



18 

m our favor, Mr, Calhoun replied at length, with such 
power of argument, such glowing eloquence and fervid 
patriotism, as to kindle anew the almost expiring flame of 
hope. Tempting as it is, I must forego the pleasure of 
quoting largely from that great eff'ort, and content myself 
with a single extract, showing his appreciation of those 
naval victories : 

•" Sir, I hear the future audibly announced in the past — in the splendid 
victories over the Guerriere, the Java and the Macedonian. We, and all 
nations, by these victories, are taught a lesson never to be forgotten — • 
Opinion is power. The charm of British naval invincibility is gone !" 

- Those brilliant victories had breathed their never-dying 
courage and hope into his own bosom, enabling him to 
arouse his own great heart to the magnitude of the crisis ; 
to drive back an opposition, encouraged by, if not exulting 
in, the dangers surrounding the government ; and to strug- 
gle against the despondency which was creeping over the 
country, overwhelming the feeble and appalling the stout. 
The clarion notes of the gallant-hearted statesman rang 
clear and loud over the land, re-echoed from every hill — 
prolonged, in inspiring strains, through every valley. The 
despairing and despondent were revived ; the faliering and 
the doubting were made firm. ' Few but undismayed,' 
our warriors gathered to their country's standards ; and 
when the battalions of Wellington's vaunted invincibles 
landed on our shores, covered with lauiels, ihey were 
scattered in defeat by the hardy riflemen of the West, who 
were inspirited by these lofty sentiments, and were led by 
one who was kindred in the great elements of courage, sa- 
gacity and integrity, to the statesman, who, throughout 
that war, had been a beacon-light to the whole country. 
W'ith the war, closed the fiist three years of Mr. Cal- 
houn's public life : and our annals, filled, as they are, with 
instances of brilliant individual success, present none in 
which any, in so brief a period, has marked out so many 
great and important measures of national policy, and has 
attained so eminent a reputation for wisdom, virtue and 
eloquence. That this fact was even then generally recog- 



19 

nisedj may be gathered from the remark of that eminent 
man, the elder Dallas, that Mr. Calhoun was " the young 
Hercules of the war." 

In the legislation of the next three years of his service 
in the House of Representatives, will be found the germs 
of those great questions of domestic policy, upon which 
the republican party has since split ; and the discussion 
of which, at a far later day, has drawn forth such varied 
talent, and has tended so materially to indoctrinate the 
public mind with important constitutional truths. A glance 
at that period shows the somewhat singular fact, that most 
of the eminent men of that day occupied positions, on the 
questions at issue, apparently inconsistent with views ex- 
pressed by them at a later period. 

The Taritf and National Bank acts of 1816, and the 
Internal Improvement bill of the same year, were all origi- 
nated and supported by the great republican war party ; 
under circumstances, however, and with purposes, which 
commend their action to us as that of men of fervid patri- 
otism, but not of those strict constitutional views inculcat- 
ed by the republican creed, as handed down to us by Jef- 
ferson and Madison. Mr. Calhoun bears a full share of the 
responsibility of those measures. It is, however, but just 
to state, that he bears it in common with the republicans 
of that period. I will illustrate this by referring to the 
Bank question alone. Mr. Madison, the revered leader of 
that party, had been, in earlier days, opposed to the estab- 
lishment of a National Bank, on constitutional grounds: 
but, at the close of the war, recommended the creation of 
such an institution, as demanded by necessity — declaring 
the question, as to its constitutionality, " to be precluded 
by repeated recognitions of it, under varied circumstances.^^ 

Mr. Clay, then one of the most brilliant luminaries of 
that party, had in ISll made an able argument to prove 
that such an institution was unconstitutional, but he yielded 
the question in IS 16. Those who opposed the measure 
did so on grounds well calculated to commend it to the 
favorable consideration of the republicans. The anti-war 



20 

party looked upon it as one of a series of measures designed 
to rescue the country from the difficulties produced by the 
war ; and as such, opposed it. To a very great extent, the 
members of that opposition have since become advocates of 
the measure. Is it at all wonderful that Mr. Calhoun, the 
youngest of the prominent statesmen of that era, should 
have been found yielding to its fixed political impressions ? 
It is clear, then, from this brief review, that Mr. Calhoun 
shared, with the leading statesmen of that day, opinions as 
to the powers #f Congress, which a larger experience and 
more mature reflection have led him to modify or to 

change. 

Neither his early political education nor the circumstan- 
ces which surrounded him were calculated to excite him to 
that rigid constitutional investigation of measures which so 
pre-eminently distinguished him at a later period of his life. 
The great constitutional principles, the advocacy of which 
in restraint of Congressional legislation had brought Mr, 
Jefferson into power in the year 1800, had too little scope 
for action and hardy development. The questions imme- 
diately arising out of the great contests in Europe, brought 
on by the French revolution, called the attention of Con- 
gress from our internal to our external relations. The 
agitation of the billows reached even these distant and 
peaceful shores, deeply affecting our commercial rights, and, 
m a measure, involving our national independence. The 
great issues of the day were made upon thejKnvers of Con- 
gress over our foreign relations. These are necessarily 
broad, and their exercise rarely ever meet with that critical 
investigation which measures affecting the internal econo- 
my of the Government generally undergo. In conflict 
with other nations, the suggestions of patriotism are rarely 
ever challenged at the gates where intellect keeps watch 
and ward. This state of things continued till near the 
close of Mr. Madison's administration ; while the two last 
years of that administration may well be considered as 
belonging to the same era, being devoted to clearing away 
the decks of the vessel of State after the conflict— to putting 



•21 

her at once into trim, prepared to meet any contingency 
which the untoward times might throw up — and to taking 
care of the great interests, which, serving the country well 
in war, might be jeopardised, unless watchfully guarded, in 
peace. Such circumstances wore unpropitious to the devel- 
opment of the better aim of our government — eminently 
unfavorable to the study of the complicated constitutional 
checks and balances which, by reason of their nice adjust- 
ment in relation to the rights of the States and the powers 
of government, render ours the best system of government 
upon earth. 

It was in the midst of this state of things, when the irri- 
tation consequent upon the high-handed course of Great 
Britain was at its highest, that Mr. Calhoun entered upon 
the duties of life. *His political education, therefore, 
thoush bea:un durini2r the administration of Mr. Jefferson, 
had none of the advantages of practical instruction in the 
i?reat fundamental truths, the advocacy of which had 
brought Mr. Jefferson into power, and constitutes his chief 
renown and glory. On the contrary, no sooner had he 
closed his collegiate course and left the classic groves of 
Yale, than, even in the quiet recess of the lawyer's office, 
the sound of Mr. Jefferson's announcement broke upon his 
ear, informing him that the nations of Europe were in com- 
motion and arming against each other — that our rights 
were at stake, and that we must prepare to meet the unjust 
assumptions of the belligerents v/ith "an effectual and 
determined opposition." 

The exercise of the war power necessarily kept Govern- 
ment running in the same channels which it had pursued 
previous to the election of Mr. Jefferson — namely, in that 
of legislation at discretion. The head and the heart of 
every patriot sympathised in every movement calculated 
to strengthen the Government for the conflict, and all this 
not the less certainly, that the Federal party, truer to the 
instincts of party than to the interests of the country, gen- 
erally opposed these measures, which an adhesion to tho 



22 

principles of their school might well have permitted them 
to support. 

There was, too, another fact to be urged in explanation 
of the course, not only of Mr. Calhoun, but of the great 
Republican party, at that juncture. The complete triumph 
of that party, under the auspices of Mr. Jefferson, had 
seemed to settle the policy of the government upon the 
State Rights principle. The Federal party had been gradu- 
ally losing ground in popular esteem, and, during the war 
and its antecedent policy, had conducted its opposition on 
other than the great principles which distinguished it in 
the days of Hamilton. It factiously sought to embarrass 
an administration it could not overthrow. This course 
effectually crushed even the last hope it may have enter- 
tained of regaining power. At the dose of Mr. Madison's 
administration, as a party, it disbanded ; and its members 
sought shelter from public odium in the ranks of the repub- 
lican masses. All danger from the strong, consolidating, 
doctrines of the old Federal party was thought to be at an 
end. Having no vigilant and powerful foe hanging on its 
flanks — serving to keep it to the narrow track of constitu- 
tional duty, the Republican party, who had possession of 
the government, unwillingly permitted it to take too wide 
a scope in its legislation. 

This is the light — these are the circumstances in which 
Mr. Calhoun's course, at that day, should be viewed and 
judged. 

An allegation of inconsistency can have no just force, 
however, unless it involves an implication of a change of 
political opinions for personal considerations : for surely it 
is no matter for arraignment of any man, that reflection and 
experience have induced him to change his views upon any 
given question. Looking at the allegation in this light, 
Mr. Calhoun's whole life challenges scrutiny. 

But if Mr. Calhoun's career, as a member of the House 
of Representatives, shews a course of action, in some par- 
ticulars, variant from the principles of the State Rights 
school, nobly has he atoned for the error. If to his con- 



23 

duct any of the then Federal tendencies of his party were 
at all attributable, it is undeniable that to his ceaseless, 
brilliant and self-sacrificing efforts, for the last quarter of 
a century, it owes its return to the principles of 1798. 

The sixteen years that invervened between the two grand 
divisions of his legislative career, constitute not the least 
interesting period of his life ; for it was during this period 
that he laid the broad and firm foundations of that magni- 
ficent superstructure which he reared to his fame while a 
Senator of the State of South Carolina. 

Though, during the whole of this time, he occupied two 
high stations in the Executive department, his position 
was eminently favorable to a study of the principles of the 
Constitution, and to a close observation of the working of 
the system— particularly during the period in which he 
held the office of Vice President. He diligently improved 
these opportunities ; he made the constitution and its his- 
tory a subject of profound study and reflection. He ad- 
opted, as true expositions of that instrument, the celebra- 
ted report and resolutions of Mr. Madison, adopted by the 
General Assembly of Virginia in 1798, and the resolutions 
of the Legislature of Kentucky of 1799, written by Mr. 

Jefferson. 

Judging the men and measures of that period by those 
tests, he was not long in coming to the conclusion, that the 
spirit of Federalism was in the ascendant, under the name 
and garb of Republicanism. The fulfillment of Mr. Jef- 
ferson's prophecy had taken place— in 1804, he wrote to 
a friend — " The Federalists know that, eo nomine, they 
are gone forever. Their object, therefore, is how to re- 
turn into power under some other form. Undoubtedly 
they have but* one means, which is to divide the republi- 
cans, join the minority and barter with them for the cloak 
of their name. * * * Thus a bastard system of Fed- 
ero-republicanism will rise on the ruins of the true princi- 
ples of our revolution." The fruition of this barter of 
dangerous principles for a popular name, was the elevation 
of a scion of the old federal stock to the Presidency, in 



24 

1824j and a development of principles, whose direct ten- 
dency was to undermine the constitution by a consolidation 
of the powers of the Federal Government and of the 
States — making ours, in lieu of a Federal Union, a consol- 
idated Democracy. It was an observable and an alarming 
fact, too, that whatever assailment those federal principles 
received, was generally upon other than high constitutional 
grounds. " Vigilance," it is said, '' is the price of liberty." 
But vigilance had fled her post, falsely deeming that danger 
was far away. 

That political equilibrium between North and South, to 
which Mr. Calhoun has more than once alluded as having 
existed at the adoption of the constitution, he ascertained 
was fast yielding before the encroachments of Northern 
cupidity. The hopes which the settlement of the territory 
acquired with Louisiana held out to the South had been, 
in a measure, blasted in the adjustment of the Missouri 
question. Not content with the great preponderance of 
political power thus eventually secured to it, by what 
must be termed an unconstitutional crusade against the 
South, the North sought also to enrich its section throu2:h 
means of its numerical superiority and control over the 
taxing power and over the expenditures of the government. 
The tariff acts of 1818 and 1824 had been enacted with an 
express view of encouraging and protecting the home in- 
dustry of the North ; while millions of the public treasure 
were expended there in the building of roads, digging of 
canals, and improvement of its rivers and harbors. The 
origin and entire history of the enactment of the tariff of 
1828 were of such a character, at once so shamefully regard- 
less of the constitution and of the true aim and object of 
government, as to excite in the mind of Mr. Calhoun, and of 
the South generally, both alarm and indignation. With 
universal accord it was '^damned to immortality," under 
the justly deserved title of " the bill of abominations," 
given to it by Mr. Calhoun. Protests were made against 
it in all parts of the South, and in December, 1828, the 
Legislature of South Carolina adopted the celebrated 



25 • 

" South Carolina exposition and protest on the subject of 
the tariff'* — laying bare the unconstitutionality of the sys- 
tem the clanger to be apprehended to constitutional liberty 

from its adoption and continuance — and pointing out the 
right of the State, in the last resort, to interpose her veto 
against its execution within her limits. This report was 
written by Mr. Calhoun. He was deeply impressed with 
the conviction that the systematic usurpation of power by 
Congress, both in taxing one industry of the country to 
support another and in profuse expenditure of the public 
revenue for sectional purposes, sustained as it was by 
nearly every leading public man of that day and by both 
the great wings of the so called Republican party, if not 
checked, would soon destroy the rights of the States ; and 
that the only remedy for so great and growing an evil was 
State interposition. This doctrine had been announced in 
the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799. 
The following memorable and pointed passage is to be 
found in the Kentucky reeolutions, draughted by Mr. 
Jefferson : 

"The several States which formed that instrument being sovereign 
and independent, have the unquestionable right tojudge ofits infraction ; 
and that a nullification by these sovereignties of all unauthorised acts, 
done under color of that instrument, is the rightful remedy." 

The State Rights party, however, who thus fearlessly 
grappled with the growing evil of the times, were not dis- 
posed to proceed hastily, nor without giving full time for 
public opinion to develope itself on the issue made. The 
national debt was not yet paid ; and they assigned, as a 
limit to longer submission to the unconstitutional enact- 
ment, the payment of that debt. Then there could be 
neither rational or national excuse offered for the perpetua- 
tion of the act. At that time, if not repealed or modified, 
the act would accumulate a vast surplus in the Treasury, 
which being divided among the States, according to an 
avowed correlative policy, would operate as an annual bonus 
in favor of the continuance of the system. i\Ir. Calhoun 
and his friends were also willing to await the development 



26 

of the policy of Gen. Jackson's administration, which they 
had voted to bring into power, under the hope that the great 
influence of that popular leader would be exerted against 
the system. Five years rolled away ; the national debt 
had been paid off; the question had been made as to the 
repeal or modification of the obnoxious act ; and the result 
was the act of 1832, declared by Mr. Clay and the admin- 
istration to be the final adjustment of the system— an act 
in many particulars a grosser violation of the constitution 
than that of 1828. It announced, indeed, protection to be 
the settled policy of the government ; and leaving an im- 
mense surplus thus collected, over and above the wants of 
government, it contained within itself the means of its 
perpetuation— it invited the issue announced by South 

Carolina. 

Not less delusive had been the reliance of that State upon 
the administration. The first and second messages of Gen. 
Jackson sustained Congress in the exercise of the protective 
principle— announced that it was not probable that any 
satisfactory adjustment of the tariff would be made, and 
recommended that the surplus revenue should be distribu- 
ted among the States. 

With every door of hope of a proper adjustment of this 
great question thus closed upon her. South Carolina was 
driven by the submissive policy of her sister States to look 
to herself alone for redress in this trying emergency. She 
was not unprepared for the crisis, nor was she deterred by 
its dangers, confessedly great as they were. She adopted 
an ordinance nullifying the obnoxious act within the 
limits of the State. The Legislature passed a law to carry 
it into effect in February, 1833. Gen. Hayne was recalled 
from the United States Senate to fill the important post 
of Governor of the State at this crisis : and, ui full accor- 
dance with her declaration, that she but exercised a right- 
ful remedy against a palpable infraction of her rights, and 
that she warred not upon the Union, the State elected Mr. 
Calhoun to be her representative in the Senate, designing 
the office of Vice President, he took the oath to support the 



27 

constitiitioQ of the United States, and commenced that 
brilliant career as a Senator which, whatever judgment may- 
be passed upon nullification, has done more to enlighten 
the public mind as to the true theory of our institutions, 
and to give a determinate direction to the policy of our 
government, than even the great discussions which brought 
the Republican party into power in the year ISOO. 

Simple as was the act thus performed — the taking the 
oath as Senator, in his case it was deemed by the commu- 
nity to be one of no ordinary importance. It was a super- 
stition of olden times that, if the murderer should touch 
the dead body of his victim, blood would at once ooze from 
the murder-telling wounds. Some such undefined feeling 
had filled the Senate chamber with an excited audience on 
the morning in which Mr. Calhoun was expected to take 
his seat. He had been branded as actuated by a ruthless 
ambition — by a disposition to rule or ruin — as an enemy of 
the Union — as the Cataline of the republic. Although his 
foes would not accept the solemn administration of the 
oath to support the constitution, as a test of innocence or 
guilt on these awful issues, yet they thronged that chamber 
to witness, with curious eyes, his bearing in the scene — to 
gather some slight evidences, it might be, of the truth of 
their convictions — to behold him shrinking before the 
majesty of a violated constitution. * But how vain their 
expectations ! Mark the high and lofty bearing of the 
man — note the erect and sternly majestic head — listen 
to the deep, quick, firm tones, which announce to the 
attentive audience that he will be true to the constitution. 
Observe that calm, motionless posture ! He looks, indeed? 
the cast iron man — incapable of being bent from his high 
purpose — immoveable, unchangeable in his resolve to fol- 
low the path pointed out by Truth, Justice and the Consti- 
tution. 

Let us pause for a moment and examine the position 
assumed by Mr. Calhoun with reference to the oft-repeated 
charges of that day, that he was a disunionist from motives 
of disappointed ambition. In 1S24, i\Ir. Calhoun was 



28 ■ 

elected to the office of Vice President by an overwhelming 
popular vote — having been selected as the candidate for 
the station by the friends both of Gen. Jackson and Mr. 
Adams. It was not an insignificant tribute to the high 
personal and intellectual qualities of the man ; it was an 
evidence of his popularity with the masses, of which any 
man might well be proud. Events that followed caused 
him to take a decided stand against Mr. Adams' adminis- 
tration, and in favor of the election of Gen. Jackson. He 
was the acknowledged head of that wing of the Republican 
party by a title as undeniable as was the position of Gen. 
Jackson as its candidate. His splendid administration of 
the War Department had exhibited him as possessed of the 
highest order of administrative ability ; while in genius 
and intellect and parliamentary experience and skill, there 
were none in the party of Gen. Jackson to take rank with 
him. All looked to him as the successor to that popular 
man. Events were rapidly developing the decided ascen- 
dancy of the supporters of Gen. Jackson. Mr. Calhoun's 
great compeers in the Republican ranks were not in the 
way of his elevation. Mr. Clay and Mr. Webster were 
attached to the fortunes of Mr. Adams, while the intellect of 
Mr. Crawford had been darkened in the very noon-day of 
his political life. 

In his place as Vice President, he had none of the re- 
sponsibilities of the measures of Congress resting upon him. 
He had but to be silent — to observe a masterly inactivity — 
to close his eyes to the wrong done the constitution and to 
the South — to stop iiis ears to the cry of just indignation 
and remonstrance which came up from every Southern 
State — to have continued to float upon the great popular 
tide which at tlie next election wafted Gen. Jackson and 
himself into the highest places in the government and gave 
to them a majority in Congress. 

It is a very popular error that Mr. Calhoun did not take 
position on this question until the relations between 
Gen. Jackson and himself had become unfriendly. 

As has been before remarked, Mr. Calhoun wrote the 



29 

celebrated exposition and protest of South Carolina on the 
tariff, and it was adopted by tlie same Legislature that 
voted for Gen. Jackson. 

It was not, indeed, till near two years after Mr. Calhoun 
had openly avowed his belief that State interposition could 
alone prove effectual to put an end to the consolidating 
tendencies of the administration, that unfortunately for the 
country these two great men were placed in a hostile atti- 
tude to each other. 

The pioof was ample at the time the charge was first 
made against Mr, Calhoun. Subsequent events have de- 
monstrated, however, beyond cavil, how eminently capable 
the great Carolinian was of rising above all personalities, in 
view of the duties he owed to his country. The position 
th'cn of Mr. Calhoun was well calculated to blind him to 
the path of duty. He stood on the very pinnacle of popular 
esteem — second to none in genius, skill in the art of gov- 
ernment, or in devotion to his country. Why, sirs, when 
first he appealed to the great conservative principles em- 
bodied in the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions against 
the wrong done his State and the constitution by Congress. 

'• He midit have stood a2;ainst a world." 
He had but to give way to the great current which was 
sweeping the ship of State upon the shoals of consolida- 
tion, and which none were found wise enough or bold 
enough to resist — he had but to be silent, as was suggested 
to him, to share largely of the power thus torn from the 
States. Ambition — every personal consideration, indeed, 
invited him to pursue the even tenor of his way — but 
truth, justice and the constitution beckoned him along that 
higher and more rugged steep, where the voice of duty 
performed alone could cheer liim. And though he has 
trod the fli'nty path firmly and cheerfully, and has finally 
fulfilled Mr. Grosvenor's prediction and reached --a hi^rh 
and ha[)py elevation in view of his country and the 
world,"' it has emphatically been at the sacrifice of every 
personal consideration — whether of ease, of quiet, of friend- 
ship, or of hope of personal preferment. 



30 

And what task was this which a disappointed and 
unhallowed ambition sought to effect ? Was it an assump- 
tion of power ? On the contrary-j he threw himself, hope- 
less of aid from any quarter save his own State, in the path 
of the most powerful administration which ever swayed the 
destinies of this country. Did he expect aid from the 
opposition ? No ! — for his course and aim was to check 
and to put an end to that system of legislation which 
had commenced under their auspices, and for the continu- 
ance of which all the great monied interests which consti- 
tuted that party still clamored. 

Upon what, then, did he rely for support ? Upon a 
great political truth. Though nowhere but in South Caro_ 
lina did those great constitutional truths find reverence, 
which Virginia announced in 1798, and Kentucky pro- 
claimed in 1799 — which took such powerful hold on the 
popular heart as to build up the great Jefferson party in their 
advocacy — though that party had forgotten the very author 
of one set of these resolutions, and was gradually falling 
back upon the principles which caused the overthrow of 
Federalism in 1800— though when these doctrines of the 
early days of the republic were exhumed, as it were, from 
the rubbish which Congressional and Executive usurpation 
had thrown npon them, they were derided as the abstrac- 
tions of a metaphysical brain — and as partaking largely of 
treason, Mr. Calhoun unhesitatingly announced them to 
be the remedy for the evils under which the country 
groaned ; and uuappalled by threats — undeterred by opposi- 
tion— unawed by the array of every party and every de- 
partment of government and every other State in the 
Union, save South Carolina, against his course, he had 
that day taken his seat in the Senate to advocate them as 
rightfulj and to lend every energy of his soul to the Her- 
culean task of reforming the abuses of the government, 
and of bringing its administration back to the track of 
simple duties indicated by the constitution. There he 
stood stript, for this high purpose, of every thing calculated 
in the least to interfere with a rigid and effectual perform- 



31 

nace of his duty. He had cut himself loose from all party 
ties — had cast to the winds every aspiration after political 
preferment— had stopped his eais to the voice of calumny, 
the threats of power, or the msidious whisperings of 
flattery, and of revenge— and, never for an instant diverted 
from his noble purpose, has marched on, and onward, till 
not only the Tariff act of 1828 was repealed, but the great 
principle of protection to any .particular industry of the 
country, by a discriminating system of taxes, has been 
permanently defeated — and the government has been freed 
from all connexion with the banking institutions of the 
country — and that great measure of " deliverance and lib- 
erty," as it has sometimes been enthusiastically cailed, the 
Independent Treasury, has been adopted for the safe-keep- 
ing and disbursement of the public revenue. 

As I have said, in this great struggle Mr. Calhoun had 
cut himself loose from party ties. He said in debate in 
1834: 

" Island wholly discoiiiiectpd with tiie two great parii-^s now contend- 
ing for ascendancy. My political connections are with that small and 
denounced party which has voluntarily wholly retired from the party 
strife of the day, with a view of saving, if possible, the liberty and the 
constitution of the country in this great crisis of our affairs." 

He was found with either, as the acts of either tended 
to advance his great aim and purpose — the disentanghng 
the government from the '-'bastard system of federo-repub- 
licanibm" which a union of the old Federalists and Republi- 
cans had entailed upon it, and its return to first principles. 
In his first great struggle, however, he had to contend with 
both the great parties. That success triumphantly 
crowned the gallant efforts of that jsmall band— the State 
Rights men, conclusively proves the efficiency of their 
movenient — and tends strongly to support its truth. Upon 
the Bank question, in its various phases, he alternately 
acted with each i)arty, as the course of each tended to ad- 
vance the aims he had in view. He opposed the establish- 
ment of a National Bank, with the administration. He 
opposed the Deposit System with the Whigs. It is a pop- 



32 

ular error to suppose that Gen. Jackson's was a purely 
anti-Bank policy. He opposed and eventually defeated a 
recharter of the United States Bank ; but he removed the 
government deposites and withheld them from that institu- 
tion to place them in the vaults of the State Banks, with 
which he established a connection far more deleterious in 
its consequences than was the connection of the govern- 
ment with the Bank of the. United States. When the issue 
of bank or no bank was attempted to be made, on the re- 
moval of the deposites and in its discussion, Mr. Calhoun's 
keen, analytic intellect detected its fallacy. He said : 

" What is the real question which now agitates the country? I an- 
swer, it is*a struggle between the executive and legislative departments of 
the government : a struggle not in relation to the existence of a IJank, 
but which, Congress or the President, should have power to create a Bank 
and the consequent control over the currency of the country. This is 
the real question. Let us not deceive ourselves: this league, this associ- 
ation of banks, created by the executive, bound together by his influence, 
united in common articles of association, vivihed and sustained by re- 
ceiving the deposites of the public money and having their notes con* 
verted, by being received every where by the treasury into the common 
currency of the country, is to all intents and purposes a Bank of the 
United States — the executive Bank of the United States as distinguished 
from that of Congress." 

" So long as the question is one between a Bar)k of the United States 
incorporated by Congress, and that system of Banks which has been 
created by the will of the Executive, it is an insult to tlie understatsding 
to discourse on the periiicious tendency and imconstitutionaiity of the 
Bank of the United States. 'To bring up that question fairly and legiti- 
mately, you must go one step fuiher ; you must dhorce the government 
and the banking system. You must refuse all connection with banks. 
You must neither receive nor ])ay away bank notes. You must go back 
to the old system of the strong box, and of gold and silver." 

" There is no other alternative. I repeat, you m\ist divorce the gov- 
ernment entirely from the banking system ; or if not, you are boun.d''to 
incorporate a bank as the only safe and efficient means of giving stability 
and uniformity to the currency. And should the deposites not be restored 
and the present illegal and unconstitp.tio:,al connection between the execu- 
tive and the league of the banks continue, I shall feel it to be my duty, 
it no one else moves, to introduce a measure to prohibit the government 
from receiving or touching bank notes in any shape whatever, as the 
only means left of giving safety and stability to the currency and saving 
the country from corruption and ruin." 



33 

The small State Rights party, then, was the only true 
anti-bank party in 1834. In accordance with Mr. Cal- 
houn's suggestion, Gen. Gordon, of Virginia, introduced 
the first Independent Treasury bill into the House of 
Representatives in 1834. Such, however, was not the 
policy either of the administration or of the opposition — 
and the measure had to bide its time. It was then de- 
feated. 

In 1837, however, came the great commercial convul- 
sion, which prostrated nearly every bank in the United 
States. What were left standing were so crippled as to be 
obliged to suspeiid specie payments ; and by virtue of the 
joint resolution of 1816, the connexion of the government 
with the deposit banks ceased. The great distress thus pro- 
duced was dexterously turned upon the Democratic party ; 
and Mr. Van Buren commenced his administration evident- 
ly in a minority, both in Congress and among the people 
of the States. At this juncture the government was, for 
the first time since its commencement, free to take a fresh 
start in the narrow and restricted path of the Constitution. 
Mr. Van Buren had the wisdom to perceive this, and the 
nerve to take advantage of it. He had that true greatness 
of soul, too, wfiich enabled him to seize upon Truth 
v.iierever he found it, to throw himself and his administra- 
tion for support even upon a measure of the gifted, though 
denounced Carolinian. He recommended the Independ- 
ent Treasury plan— based upon Mr. Calhoun's suggestion, 
in 1834, of a divorce of the connection between the gov- 
ernment and the banking system. True to the great aim 
of his life, Mr. Calhoun at once rallied to the support of 
his embittered personal foe — the only man that had ever 
drawn from him the use of an undignified personal epithet. 
Truer to principle than to power, he forsook the opposi- 
tion, with wiiom, to accomplish his purposes, he had so 
long acted, just at the moment when their cohorts were 
iratherini? for a last successful onslaught on their ancient, 
divided, distracted and disorganised foes. Bitter — bitter 
indeed were the curses which they heaped upon the head 
3 



34 

of the great Carolinian, when they found that experienced 
and veteran leader, at the head of that small but efRcienc 
band of State Rights men, between them and their prey! 
The contest that ensued is without a parallel in the 
legislative history of our country. Every weapon of par- 
liamentary warfare was used to crush Mr. Calhoun, and to 
destroy the immense moral force of his position. His con- 
sistency was assailed^-his whole political career was 
searched, with a keeniiess of vision which only political 
hate can give, for the purpose of finding material with 
which to lessen him in public estimation ; and one bold, 
impetuous leader was rash enough to insinuate that Time 
must reveal the m-otives of his course. I cannot forbear to 
give his reply — 

" But in so premeditated and indiscriminate an attack, it could not be 
expected that my motives would entirely escape, and we accordingly 
find the Senator from Kentucky very charitably leaving it to time to 
disclose my motive for going over ! I, who have changed no opinion, 
abandoned no principle, and deserted no party ; I, who have stood still 
and maintained my ground against every difficulty, to be told that it is 
lef^to time to d'sclose my motive ! • The imputation sinks to the earth, 
with the groundless charge on which it rests. I stanip it with scorn, in 
the dust. I pick up the dart, which fell harmless at my feet. I hurl it 
back. What the Senator charges on me, he has actuaUy done, lie went 
over on a memorable occasion, and did not leave it to t;me to disclose 
his motive." 

To those familiar with the history of these two great 
statesman — the characteristics which distinguish them — 
and the style and manner of Mr. Calhoun in debate, the 
above retort will be considered as one of the finest in- 
stances, in our parliamentary debates, of lofty, indignant, 
and crushing invective. 

The expression of astonishment — of a lofty and virtuous 
indignation, at such an imputation. The vehement, sen- 
tentious, coiTiplete vmdication, as he points in triumph 
and scorn to the spent dart which lay, fallen at his feet — 
ihe sudden change from a posture of defence to active hos- 
tility—the terrible home thrust given t^ his adversary with 
his own weapon, as if scorning to use upon him his own 
good blade — the compressed energy and earnestness of the 



35 

whole paragraph— all cause the reader to feel that, short 
as was the passage at arms, it could uot have been more 
triumpliant on the part of the Carolina Senator. 

But, tempting as is the theme, I dare not revive the 
personal contests of those times. Much, doubtless, was 
said which an after judgment condemned — all attributable 
to the extraordinary position into which unexpected events 
threw the men and parlies of that, day. Had Mr. Calhoun 
been a partizan during his Senatorial career, he must 
have gone down under the repeated and terrible charges 
which \^erc made against him by men whose superiors iti 
such warfare—both as to skill and power — have been found 
in no legislative body in this or any other country. His 
safety lay in the well-tempered armor of principle with 
which he fought those battles ; and in the striking fact that 
when he entered the Senate he announced in debate on the 
first fit opportunity-^when finding himself acting with the 
"Whigs cii the Deposit question— that "he stood discon- 
nected with both the great parties"' — with the view, if 
possible, of saving the constitutioi] of the country. When 
he moved the specie clause to the Independent Treasury 
bill in 1837, which drew upon him the whole weight of 
the Whigs and Conservatives, he again said: 

"I chatigG no relation — personal or political, nor alter any opinion I 
have heretofore expressed or entertained. I des^ire nothing from the 
government or the people. My only ambition is to do my duty, and I 
shall follow wherever thnt may lead, cegardlcs?^ alike of all attachments 
or antipalhieF,p'Tsonal or political. * * "'•' My course is 

fixed. I go forward — not stopping to estimate whether the benefit is to 
enure to the administration or opposition." 

There lay the secret charm which made him invincible 
— and gives a lesson of inestimable value to the young 
sta-tesmen, who are entering upon a public career. The 
standard by which his opponents sought to try him was a 
party standard : they acknowledged no other — possessed 
no other. He denied their jurisdiction ; and in turn tried 
them by the only standard which he acknowledged, and 
to which they were alike amenable— that of the Constitu- 
tion. They were constantly struggling to perfect and pre- 



36 

serve that party organization, by which they sought to 
obtain possession of the government, while he was as con- 
stantly endeavoring to make all their measures conform to 
the Constitution, legardless alike of "attachments and an- 
tipathies, personal or political." It is an undeniable and 
most gratifying fact, however, that though laboring under 
such apparent disadvantages — having no gre^t party in 
whose sympathies to enshrine himself during these terrible 
ordeals — though liis opponents were the leaders of the two 
great parties into v/hich the country v/as divided — though 
the press every where, out of his own State, including the 
great centre of political information and feeling — Washing- 
ton, was in the service of those parties, the intellect of the 
whole country did homago to his genius, and the great po- 
pular heart beat in sympathy with the morale of his posi- 
tion. In no other itistance in our country, has any states- 
man ever maintained himself, in conflict with these Great 
odds. 

It is an interesting inquiry — What constituted that power 
which enabled Mr. Galhoun to bear up against all odds — 
whether of numbers or of intellect — or of political know- 
ledge and parliamentary skill? In what did the temper of 
that armor consist, which was impenetrable to lance, 
whether of Whig, of Democrat, or Conservative ? It was 
a principle to which in every age and clime the philoso- 
pher and the heathen, virtue and vice have rendered hom- 
age — a severe, stern self-sacrince in pursuit of what he 
deemed to bo the good of his country. 

Possessed of a genius, to which was given the tribute of 
universal admiration — of a practical, administrative ability, 
which was stamped indelibly upon the records of Mr. Mon- 
roe's administration, and wliich has furnished models for 
the government of the War Department since — of that 
stern integrity, which has passed unimpeached through 
the fiery ordeal of forty years political strife — of a simpli- 
city and truth and grandeur of character, before which 
Whig, Democrat and Abolitionist have bowed in sincere 
homage—with such a combination of qualities, so well 



' • 37 

calculated to enshrine him in the affections of the people 
and to advance what(3ver personal aspiration he might lau- 
dably indulge in, he yet turned from the inviting path 
of power and preferment — to nse his own language — "to 
save, if possible, the liberty and constitution of the coun- 
try." He was, in truth, the Guardian Genius of Constitu- 
tional Liberty; and however well any other may be con- 
sidered as entitled to be styled the "Expounder of the 
Constitution," Mr. Calhoun was alone pre-eminently, and 
at all times and in every temptation, the Defender of the 
Constitution : and so will his name be enrolled, when the 
history of that noble chart of Liberty shall be written. 

Perhaps the time has come when events arc not iinpro- 
pitious to an acknowledgment by the Democratic party of 
its indebtedness to the great State R-ights leader. 

How stood that party on the 4t!i of July, 1S40 — the 
day on which the Independent Treasury bill became a 
law ? Certainly upon an eminence upon which any party 
might be proud to stand. It had triumphed upon a simple 
truth, after an ordeal of four years' opposition, in whose 
sirocco blasts it would have withered, if that principle had 
not been deeply rooted in the Constitution. From a 
minority, produced by a dissolution of that splendid, 
triumphant and devoted majority which had sustained 
Gen. Jackson during the eight years of his stormy admin- 
istration, it had struggled upwards, in the teeth of greater 
pecuniary distress than ever before had afflicted the coun- 
try — in the face of the fact that much of this was attribu- 
table to the State Bank policy of its predecessor ; and 
though assailed by the combined forces of the Whig and 
Conservative parties — and at times borne backwards in de- 
feat, it had finally triumphed upon a truth it had once 
rejected — the divorce of Bank' and State. It is true that, in 
the succeeding election, its personal representative was de- 
feated ; but its great principles were not assailed in the 
popular trial : and no sooner had the congressional majori- 
ty, which had swept in on the Presidential wave in 1840, 
repealed the Independent Treasury law and the TaritT 



Compromise act of 1833— and thus submitted those mea- 
sures again to the people, than an overwhelming majority, 
ia their favor, was returned at the next elections — the In- 
dependent Treasury law was re-established and the Tariff 
of 1846 was enacted over that of 1842, upon the princi- 
ples of free-trade. 

It may be considered then that on the 4th of July, 
1840, the Democratic party had disentangled the govern- 
ment from all Bank connexion, and from the Protective 
principle, and was, in fact, the legiu'mate representative of 
the old republican party of 1798. It is another interesting 
inquiry — Had it become so by a process of self-purgation 
and discipline ? , 

That party had its origin in the division into which the 
great republican party, demoralised by long possession of 
power and a large infusion of the old federal leaders into 
its ranks, had broken in 1824. This division did not take 
place on any great difference as to principle, but chiefly on 
account of the exciting personal contests of its leaders for 
pre-eminence and place. What has since assumed the 
name of the Democratic party, led off under the auspices 
of Gen. Jackson and Mr. Caihoun, who defeated its rival 
wing in 1828. Mr. Calhoun had attached himself to that 
wing in the hopes of influencing it to resist the tide of 
congressional usurpation then setting strongly against the 
rights of the States, in both the collection and disburse- 
ment of the public revenue. The first efforts made to 
bring back the government to first principles, were by Mr. 
Calhoun in his ineffectual resistance to the erjactment of the 
Tariff of 1828. and his appeal to the principles of 1798, as 
a remedy against the unconstitutional usurpation. Strange 
as it may appear, the origin of that measure was in the 
desire of Gen. Jackson's friends, from the tariff States, to 
secure his election by thus offering a bonus for their sup- 
port. Gen. Jackson, himself, when elected, declared the 
principle sound, and that it was the duty of Congress to 
exercise it. 

The next step in the right direction was taken by Gen. 



' 39 

Jackson, and maintained witli a power and brilliancy 
which probably no other man in the nation was compe- 
tent to exercise against such fearful odds- -I allude to his 
attack and triumpli over the Bank of the United States. 

But bold as was that move, it lacked the grandeur which 
would have invested it, hati it been based upon some vital 
constitutional principle. With Gen. Jackson it was simply 
a gigantic contest— a brilliant triumph, personal, if I might 
so speak, between himself and the Bank. I know that this 
will be considered by many a bold judgment to pass upon 
that great movement ; but it is just. In giving it character, 
we must not confound with it Mr. Van Buren's after strug- 
gle with the friends of the Bank on the Independent Trea- 
sury principle, which Gen. Jackson at first opposed, but 
which, it is but just to say, he afterwards heartily approved. 
Neither must we look alone to the alledged grounds of the 
attack. We must look upon it in the light of Gen. Jack- 
son's course during and after the great struggle had ended 
in his success, and in the direction he sought to give to the 
government when freed from all connection with the Bank 
of the United States. In doing so, we will find that Gen. 
Jackson recommended legislation, based on the principle 
which had brought the Bank of the United States itself 
into being — the necessity of Banks to the safe-keeping and 
disbursement of the revenue, and hence the adoption by his 
administration of the State Batik system. It proved to be 
but a transfer of government futids from the vaults of one 
Bank to those of several. To Mr. Calhoun is due the con- 
ception of the idea, atid the return of the government to 
first principles— '' to the old system of the strong box, 
and of gold atid silver." 

Gen. Jackson crushed during his administration the In- 
ternal Improvement system. His administratioti, in fact, 
was remarkable for its vigor — the iuieusity and extent of 
its popularity, and its striking incousi.vtencies — inconsisten- 
cies arising from its very attempts to disenthrall the gov- 
ernment from that bastard system of federo-republicanism 
into which the politicians of the country had been sinking 



40 

it for a series of years, and from the farther fact that these 
attempts were confined alone to the striking down some of 
the great evidences of the existence of the evil which it 
nourished in its bosom. It admitted the right of Congress 
to protect manufactnring industry in the collection of rev- 
enue, but denied the right to encourage commercial in- 
dustry in its expenditure. 

It denied the right to lend the credit of government to 
a Bank of the United States, but admitted the right to lend 
its funds to a league of Siato Banks. 

In fine, it lopped off two great branches, but left the 
main trunk, of the tree of American system to flourish and 
to send forth n(;w shoots. 

Mr. Van Buren succeeded to the administration. He had 
barely taken the oath of office, when, in the great commer- 
cial crash of 1837. the Banks v/ent by the board by hun- 
dreds. The opposition, led by men of storied names, 
strong in unity of purpose and of interest, and stronger still 
in the universal distress pervading the whole country, made 
a fierce onset upon the ranks of the Democracy — at once 
disorganised and demoralised by the fearfulness of the 
crisis and the apparent fulfilment of every evil prophecy 
uttered against their course on the Bank question by their 
foes. The head of the Republican column was crushed 
beneath its force. Its ranks were thinned not only by 
individual desertion, including men high in its confidence, 
but by the defection of whole States, who either joined the 
exultant Whigs or organised as Conservatives. Whatever 
else may be said in reference to Mr. Van Buren, no one, at 
all familiar with his course on this occasion, can refrain 
from awarding to him the genius to mark out, and the 
courage to pursue, the only course which could have saved 
his administration and the country. He relied upon that 
noble truth, rejected with his own concurrence by Gen. 
Jackson in the height of his power, the divorce of Bank 
and State — the conception of his great personal adversary, 
Mr. Calhoun ; and he fearlessly and wisely placed the success 
of his administration upon it. Conquering the deepest 



•11 

prejudices — tearing from his vision the veil of personal 
antipaih}' — looking calmly and clearly at the true interests 
of his country, that great man at once took his stand be- 
side the administration, becoming its support, its hope, and 
eventually its preserver. 

I appeal, then, to tlic truth of history — aye ! I will dare 
appeal to the candor of the present hour, to sui^tain me in 
the assertion, that if the Democralic party owes its rise, 
power and glory to the great principles of free trade, low 
duties, an economical administration of the government, and 
a divorce of Bank and State — it owes it all to Join] C. Cal- 
houn; that he has been its guardian genius, whether battling 
for it, against its own prejudices and errors — or leading 
it to victory and honor, apparently against fearful odds, 
under the tattered but glorious old banner of State R*ights ! 

Mr. Calhoun may well contest with Mr. Jeflerson the 
title of being the " Apostle of Republicanism.'' lie was 
more intellectual than JeflTerson, and as pure as Washing- 
ton. He combmed brilliant genius with that simplicity, 
truth and classic grandeur of character with which our 
imasfinations would invest oiie Vv'ho bears so iionored a 
distmction. 

There Vv'as a marked difference in the manner in which 
the two effected their piu'poses. The one brought to bear 
in their aid the combined intellect of the whole country by 
])rivate correspondence — infusing the sublune truths of his 
political creed into the able men of tlic country — for he 
never understook to speak. 

The other wrote but little — and making no calculations 
as to the opinions of others fearlessly announced the great 
principles of his action, relying entirely upon his own 
exhaustless resources and the mighty power of the truth he 
advocated. 

The former had tFie advantage of acting his part in the 
early days of the repul)lic, when the constitution was fresh 
from the hands of its framers, before government had 
become set in any particular path. Tfie latter began his 
contest after the channels of policy against which he strug- 



42 

gled had baen worn deep by an iininterrnpted tide of legis- 
lation, for a quarter of a century. 

Mr. Jefferson had the advantage of contending with open 
and avowed federalism. Mr. Oalhonn strn^i^led with fede- 
ralism in disguise — assuming the cloak of Republicanism 
to cover a heart of consolidation. 

The former asserted doctrines, while the voices of the 
framers of the constitution were yet to be heard in the land, 
strengthening his pohcy — confirming his opinion. The 
latter upheld them when the very name of the author of 
their most celebrated exposition had been forgotten — 
when, as he disinterred them from the rubbish of the past, 
they were branded as the abstractions of his own brain. 

Mr. Jefferson proclaimed theiri when there were but half 
a dozon banks, and no great organised American system of 
varied interests to array themselves against him.. 

Mr. Calhoun wrestled for their ascendancy v/ith a thou- 
sand-leagued monied corporations, whose long and wiry 
arms wound around tiie people and their government — 
binding both to their altars; and when the craving appe- 
tites of manufacturing capitalists and of local demands for 
internal improvements enlisted most public men in their 
support. 

It is true, Mr. Jefferson had to contend with such men as 
Hamilton and Adams — but Mr. Oalhoun was opposed at 
all points by such men as Clay and Webster, and at others by 
Jackson— men, who, in ability, power and influence were 
inferior to none that ever acted a part in American affairs. 

In the days of Mr. Jefferson, Federalism openly attacked 
the constitutional liberty of the individual citizen — produ- 
cing such intense^ popular indignation that the public ear 
was greedily opened to, and the public mind easily con- 
vinced by, the simple yet bold truths' which promised an 
effectual remedy. 

The march of aggression, in the times of Mr. Calhoun, 
was stealthy, though not the less destructive— was di- 
rected against the States, and acting indirectly only upon 



43 

individuals, was not calculated to arouse the public to the 
immineucy of thn danger. 

Mr. JeflTerson's task was but a lucid exposition of consti- 
tutional truths, the application of which to the administra- 
tion was supersede'd by the contest into which the govern- 
ment was shortly after phniged with tlie belligerent powers 

of Europe. 

Mr. Calhoun revived and practically applied ihem to the 
affairs of government, changing the course and character of 
Congressional legislation in the very face of the counter 
principles of one great party, and in opposition to the preju- 
dices and errors of another. 

Mr. Jefferson was a part of the age which gave birth to 
the Constitution —was dei^ply imbued wiih its spirit and 
principles. Mr. Calhoun had to throw o(f the erroneous 
habits of thinking common to his lime — to work through 
the precedents of a quarter of a century's legislation — to 
discard venerable and most persuasive authority — to exer- 
cise an intellectual independence, rarely given to man, be- 
fore he could bathe in the fountain head of constitutional 
liberty, and wash himself free of the political impurjties 
common to the statesmen of his age. 

I repeat, then*, that Mr. Calhoun may v^ell contest with 
Mr. Jefferson the title to be considered "the i\postle of 
Republicanism." • 

Upon one great question, which in intensity and impor- 
tance overrides all others, Mr. Calhoun has been, without 
doubt, the most sagacious, feailt'ss and vigilant champion 
who ever advocated the cause of the South -I allude to 
the slavery question. Long before the danger became ap- 
parent — aye ! long before the sleeping fanatic had dream- 
ed that he would become our assailant in the halls of 
Congress, Mr. Calhoun predicted tfie assaults that have 
been made upon us. In February, 1833, in his speech on 
the Force bill, alliiding to the vast power claimed for the 
Federal government, bv the advocates of that measure, fo 
determine the extent of its own powers and to enforce 
them with the bayonet, he predicted that the spirit of Abo- 



44 

litionism, then dormant, would be aroused — that it would 
infect the whole North — vvfio, controlling the powers of 
the government, would feel responsible for the longer con- 
tinuance of an inslitution which they possessed the means 
to overthrow — that, althougli at that liiile there existed no 
hostile feelings, combined with political considerations, in 
any section, connected with this delicate subject, it required 
no stretch of the imagination to see the dangers which must 
one day come, if the subject was not vigilantly watched. 
" Unless this doctrine be opposed by united and firm resis- 
tance, its ultimate effect will be to drive the white popula- 
tion from the Southern Atlantic States." The time, how- 
ever, was at hand when " hostile feelings combined with 
political considerations" induced a distinct and separate 
organization of the abolitionists. They established a press, 
and in 1835 comn^n.ced to flood the South with incendi- 
ary publications, through the United States mail. Gen. 
Jackson, from tlie most patriotic considerations, recom- 
mended Congress to pass a law prohibiting their circulation 
through the mail. Mr. Calhoun's powerful analytic intel- 
lect enabled him at once to perceive that the exercise of 
such a power by Congress would be dangerous in principle. 
Grant to that body the right to judge what is incendiary, 
and it follows that it has also the right to say what is not 
incendiary — and thus would the South, jn this particular, 
be at the mercy of the discretion of Congress. He had the 
subject referred, and made a report claiming that the States 
'had the right to protect their property, and to decide what 
was and what was not injurious to it — and that it was the 
duty of Congress to prevent the passage through the mail 
of any matter prohibited by the States on that ground. 
The distinction drawn, though nice, was palpable and 
important. 

The great aim of the abolitionists, however, was to gain 
a foothold in Congress- to use that body as a fulcrum for 
the great lever of anti-slavery agitation. To this end they 
flooded Congress with petitions. As little disposed as 
Northern statesmen then were to annoy the South on this 



45 

subject, they yet liesitated to bring themselves into conflict 
with the anti-slavery feeling of the North, by taking any 
decided ground against the prayer of the petitioners. 

The great bane of the South on this issue has been tliat 
its public men, generally, connected iniimalely with the 
great parties of the day — whose ramifications extended 
through all parts of the country, have endeavored to con- 
form their action upon the slavery question to the interests 
,of the parties to which they respectively belonged. Such 
was the disposition actuating them at the time referred to — 
and willing to yield a little, in order to preserve their North- 
ern friends untrammelled, a pretty general understanding 
had taken place, that the petitions should be received, but 
neither be referred nor acted upon. Mr. Calhoun's far 
seeing intellect, however, saw all the dangers arising from 
admitting jurisdiction in the Senate, even to that limited 
extent. Fortunately for the South, he has never had party 
ties calculated to blind him to his duty or to deter him from 
pursuing it. His mind, too, at all times rigid and uncom- 
promising, on that vital question rejected all temporary 
expedients. The right of petitioning, he contended, was 
merely the riglit of presenting a petition, personal to the 
petitioner. When presented, it was the right of Congress 
to receive or to reject it. And, in this instance, as Congress 
could exercise no jurisdiction on the subject matter of the 
petition, it was its duty not to receive it. He said : 

" It' there must be an is^ue, now is our tirnp. We never can be more 
united or better prepared tor the struggle; and I, for one, would much 
TJther meet tbe d;^nger r)OW than to turn it over to those who are to coniy 
alter us." 

" We are abiiit to take the first step; that must control all our subse- 
quent ii)0vecnent>:. If it ^^hould be such, a^ I tear it will — if we receive 
this petition, and thereby establish the principle, that we shall be obliged to 
receive allsuch ])etilion.s — ilwe shall bo determined to take perriiancnt 
Jurisdiction over the sulnject of abolition, whenever and in whatever nian- 
iipf ihe abolitionists tnay ask, either here or in the States, I fear that the 
consequences will be ulliinately disastrous. Such a course would de- 
stroy the confidence of the slaveholding States in their government. We 
love and cherish the Union: we remember with the kindest feelings our 
common origin, with pride our common aciiievements: and fondly- 



46 

anticipate the common greatness and glory that seem to await us; but 
origin, achievements and anticipations of coming greatness are to us as 
iiothing compared to this question." 

" If I feel alarm, it is not fir ourselves, but for the Union and the insti- 
tutions of the coutitry, to which I have ever beet) devotedly attached, 
however calumniated and slandered. Few have made greater sacrifices 
to maintain them, and none is more anxious to perpetuate them to the 
latest generation ; hut they can, and ought to be perpetuated only on the 
condition that they fulfill the great object lor which they Vvere created — 
the liberty and protection of these States." 

After a rapid but striking delineation of the power of 
the South to protect her liberties, he thus concluded : 

"With these impressions, I ask neither sympathy nor compassion for 
the slaveholdino; States. We can take care of ourselves. It is not we, 
but the Union, which is in danger. It is that which demands our care — 
demands that the agitation of this question shall cease Jiei'e — that you 
shall refuse to receive these petitions and decline all jurisdiction over the 
subject of aholiiioii in every form and shape. It is only on tliese terms 
that the Union can be safe." 

As usual with Mr. Calhoun, and perhaps his habit in this 
particular was unfortunate for the country, he had con- 
ferred with no one as to the course he had inarked out. 
Determining in his own mind, on principles of justice and 
of the constitution, what was right, he pursued the path 
pointed out, relying alone for support on the intrnisic merit 
of his course and his own mighty and inexhaustible mental 
resources. Though speaking against a preconcerted course 
of action, so forcible, clear, far-reaching, were !iis views and 
reasonifig, that his motion not to receive was carried: and 
from that day until the very week of his death it has been 
the invariable practice of the Senate not to receive these 
petitions. It seems as if wlien the sun of his intellect had 
set, that darkness at once covered and brooded over the 
constitutional richis of the South. 

Upon this question, Mr. Calhoun was uncompromising. 
When meeting it at the very threshold, he warned the 
South of the fatal eflects of compromising a question of 
such a character. Said he : 

" I do not belong to the school which holds that aggression is to be 
met with concession. In this case, in particular, I hold concession or 



47 

compromise to be fatal If we ^^onccde an inch, concession will follow 
concession, compromise woiiM fjllow compronjise, until our ranks be so 
broken that e(F<.'Ctual resistanc(? would be impossible." 

With an intellectual keenness of vision which gave hirn 
almost the gift of prophecy, and which neither personal nor 
party interests could cloud, he watched every phase of the 
question as it arot'c— by his searching powers ofanalysis laid 
bare its profoundest depths— traced the bearing of the prin- 
ciple involved, and, with a comprehensive view of all sur- 
rounding circumstances, made up his opinions as to the 
future as well as the present, and acted with reference 
to both. He has never ceased to urge union among our- 
selves for the sake of tlie Union. He early announced that 
the greatest danger was to the Union. 

When the votaries of abolition were being pelted in in- 
dignation from the rostrums in the cities of the North, and 
this fact was pointed to as conclusive of our safety by men 
who cried out to their fellows — "all is well," his far- 
reaching intellect, analyzing the subject to its profoundest 
depths, taught him that they v/ould yet take possession oi:" 
the pulpit, tlic schools, and the press of the North— that 
they would yet have power to array the citizens of each 
section against each other in deadly feud. Yv^hen first the 
fanatics approached the halls of Congress, he proclaimed to 
the South — 

" It rests with ourseives to meet and repel them. If we do not defend 
ourselves, none will defend us. If we yield, we wil! be more and more 
pressed as we recede. If we submit, we will be trampled under foot." 

"All we want is concert — to lay aside all party differences, and unite 
with zeal and eneriiy in repelling approaching dangers. Let there be 
concert of action, andwe shall tind ample means of security witliout 
resorting to secession or disunion." 

Such w^as his language and advice in 1836, uttered with 
that sententious energy — with that moral and mental power, 
that seemed calculated to drive the invaluable truth home 
to the heart of the South. Such he continued to re-iterate 
to his infatuated countrymen, upon every rene^val of these 
attacks upon their liberties. His approval of the proposi- 
tion to hold the late Southern Convention, was given in 



48 

the same lofty spirit of devotion to the Union and to the 
South— he approved of it as the only thing "that holds 
out the promise of saving both ourselves and the Union." 
Mr. Calhoun's prophetic v/arnings in 1836 were unheeded. 
We have conceded and compromised until now, in 1850, 
when aroused in some degree to the imminency of the 
crisis, it is a serious question, wliether, in the language of 
Mr. Calhoun's prediction, " our ranks are not so broken 
that effectual resistance v/ill be impossible." 

It may be a mournful truth that the South has awakened 
in time only to acknowledge how much truer than all her 
great sons John C. Calhoun has been to her— only to em- 
balm in the amber of her adversity the wisdom of his poli- 
cy — the fearless and noble disinterestedness with which he 
ever exhorted her to crush the golden idol of party which had 
been reared in her midst— and to rush to the rescue of her 
endangered liberties. Reflection and observation taught 
him that if the South vv-ould exercise a proper degree of 
restraining power and influence in the government, she 
should keep herself aloof from all party coime'ction. It 
must be so with every minority. If it joins party, it be- 
comes absorbed at once — loses its individuality — surrenders 
its right to act in its defence purely on its own judgment; 
and has to abide the decrees of its party. That party 
having other aims, will pursue then], and will make its 
principles square to the success of its organization. Hence, 
alone of all our great men, holding aloft — high above every 
party rule and itUerest, the great interests of the South — 
seeing the fatal result of relying on a party for our defence 
— a policy, which, if adopted, would inevitably and neces- 
sarily divide the South in proportion as parties are divided, 
Mr. Calhoun has for years raised his voice to break, if possi- 
ble, the charm of parly ascendancy among his countrymen. 

These views, however, have been denounced by the 
leaders of party, every where: they may be said to have 
ever been in constant conflict with Mr. Calhoun, in consc- 
quence of them. His opinions, through congressional 
speeches and by means of the controlling influence of party 



49 

leaders over the press — have been much misrepresented to 
the people, and their judgment upon them has, of course, 
been clouded with prejudice. This spirit has followed 
him even to the verge of the grave ; and that last noble 
effort in behalf of the Constitution and the South, so well 
calculated to sink deep into the hearts of his country- 
men, was instantly sought to be distorted a'.id discolored 
by those whose personal views were likely to be dis- 
turbed by its influences. 

Much of the benefit of Mr. Calhoun's immense exertions 
and devoted self-sacrifice has been lost, to the South, in 
whose cause they were made, in consequence of this suici- 
dal and unhappy jealousy of his influence, entertained by 
those party leaders in the South who held access to the 
ear of the people. One of the great elements of power 
which they have used to effect their purpose, has been 
that love of the Union, natural to a brave and loyal peo- 
ple. From the moment he raised the flag of 1798, and 
took his stand against the unconstitutional usurpation of 
power by Congress, down to the last effort made by him 
in behalf of the rights of the States and their perfect equal- 
ity in the Union, he has been pursued with the cry of '-dis- 
union." It originated with the North, but has been largely 
taken up even here at the South. A more dexterous play 
upon the affections of a people, for the purpose of keeping 
them quiet under the hand of their oppressor, never was de- 
vised. 

The Union, as designated by the Constitution — as form- 
ed by the sages and heroes who advocated and maintained 
the great fundamental rights of the people, and so wisely 
gave them the basis of a happy perpetuity, is cherished in 
the hearts core of all our citizens. So great has been its 
benefits — so happy has been its influence — so high and far 
blazes the light from the noble altar of our liberties upon 
the struggling masses of our fellow men in other nations, 
that we have been accustomed to look upon tlie Union 
with the deepest reverence. In the South this feeling 
amongst the masses is more deep and abiding, partaking 



50 

more of the character of a religious sentiment, than in any- 
other section of the country. With them, it is a sentiment 
hallowing its object — purifying and raising it above all 
mere selfish considerations, either of gain or power. The 
South never has counted its value with reference to its ef- 
fect upon her pecuniary condition. Securing to the peo- 
ple of the several States a position of dignified equality in 
the Confederacy — not trenching upon their internal gov- 
ernment of their own domestic affairs, the people of the 
Southern States are well content to bide with their breth- 
ren of the Northern States, such results as may flow from 
the wisdom of State legislation, and from the enterprise 
and energy of the respective inhabitants of the States. 

It is an historical fact, that, when any right, which it is 
the province of the Union to protect, has been invaded by 
a foreign power, the South has not been backward in the 
cabinet to urge an ample redress of the wrong, nor a lagard 
in the field when the stars and the stripes have been flung 
to the breeze to secure redress and to punish the aggres- 
sor : not counting upon what quarter the aggression was 
made, nor upon whom the greatest amount of suffering 
would fall. When England impressed American seamen. — 
searched American ships, and oppressed, by her exactions, 
American commerce, it was sufficient to the South that all 
were American ; and though she had not a seaman to be 
impressed — nor a ship to be searched — nor a carrying trade 
to be injured, her's was the first and firmest voice heard at 
the council board advising an immediate appeal to arms : 
and when we had crossed swords with the foe, her sons 
and her treasure were willingly and freely given to the 
common cause. Common, did I say ? Aye — the cause 
was indeed common ; but not so the exertions made to 
maintain it : for while the South strained every nerve to 
support, what in that cause was dear to her — far dearer 
than commerce or even the lives of her citizens, the hon- 
or of the Union : to use the language of a distinguished 
Pennsylvanian--" the North, as States, with splendid ex- 
ceptions, protested against firing a gun ;" and, I will add. 



51 

crippled her country, in the fierce struggle, by her selfish 
and unpatriotic course. 

This noble and unselfish sentiment was well calculated, 
if not perverted, to perpetuate the Union in all its original 
purity. It was a sensitive popular standard, by which 
every public man and public measure might have been 
judged, and approved or condemned, as they really tended 
to advance or to protect the objects for which it was 
formed. If the public men who had obcained the con- 
fidence of the people and the lead in public affaiis had 
been true to them, the glorious stars which exist in the 
sky of the Union would have been moving, at this day, 
harmoniously in their several spheres. But it is a fact 
which truth requires should be uttered, and which will be 
written in letters of living light whenever the history of 
this Union shall be impartially written, that the public men 
of the South, with but few exceptions, have not, in this 
particular, been true, either to the people, to the States, or 
to the Union; and the cause will be found in that all- 
absorbing devotion which they have rendered to party 
schemes. The immense patronage of the General Govern- 
)nent. (its offices atlording much greater emolument and a 
far wider field for the acquisition of either civil or military 
distinction, than do those of the several States.) has drawn 
from their service their ablest men. Those who have entered 
the political world have engaged, through means of the great 
parties, in a systematic struggle for the high honors and 
offices of the government. The tendency of all this has 
been, that in proportion, as the honors of the federal have 
exceeded in attraction those of the State government, our 
public men, generally, have lost their regard for the rights 
of the latter, and have devoted all their energies to the 
success of that party organization by which they hope to 
control the administration of that of the former. The 
records of the political history of both the great parties, 
which have at times administered the government, show 
resolves unanimously adopted, and almost as unanimously 
abandoned, whenever their application tended to break up 



52 

the organization of either of those bodies. What matters 
it to them if the Stales lose their original importance in 
the Union, if their ovv^n importance is proportionably 
increased ! 

To these men — men of ability — legislative experience, 
and tact in maintaining a great influence over the popular 
mind, the people of the States necessarily look for a proper 
administration of the General Government. 

By means of parliamentary movements — speeches in 
Congress — the press, almost exclusively within their control 
— and those thousand arts so well known to the skillful parti- 
san, the cry goes forth to the people, that "all is well;" 
while, at the same time, it is an undeniable fact that en- 
croachment after encroachment has been made upon the 
rights of the States — rights that must be retained in their 
original vigor, if the Union is to be perpetuated in the 
spirit and on the principles on which it was formed. 
Whenever any one has entered the public councils, who 
dared to disturb the smooth tenor of this state of things, 
and to expose to the people the schemes by which they 
have been so long deceived, and by which the Union is 
being slowly, though surely, consolidated and destroyed, 
is it not true that his public career has proven to be a short 
one, and that he has been hunted do.wn as a factionist or 
as an enemy to the Union ? Few public men, no matter 
how vigorous have been their characters, have been able to 
stand up against such a fearful array of opposition. Those 
few that have done so are indebted to the fact that they 
have been content to represent a Ccngressinual district — 
in which having personal access to the ear of the people, 
they have been enabled to counteract all extraneous oppo- 
sition. Mr. Calhoun alone of all our public men, who 
have placed themselves in opposition to this spirit of party, 
has been able to attain any thing like a national position, 
or a national influence. He withstood the combined and 
concentrated fire of both the great parties ; and against him 
has been brought to bear, with more determinad energy 
than against any other man, all the prejudices which the 



53 

cry of disunion could raise. No sooner had he disavowed 
allegiance to party and put on the armor of State Rights to 
resist the unconstitutional acts of Congress, than the mon- 
strous, and now in tlie South, at least, universally con- 
demned doctrines of the proclamation found their way to 
the ear of the people, sanctilied and stript of all federal 
odium by the cry that the union was assailed. In the 
name of the Union, Mr. Webster justified the consolidating 
tendencies of the government and advocated the force bill. 
In the name of the Union, powers were claimed by, and 
yielded to, the government, which, when the excitement 
passed away, their advocates in the South promptly repudi- 
ated. In the name of the Union, the noble declaration of 
constitutional truths embodied in the Virgiuia and Ken- 
tucky resolutions of 179S and 1799, and which called the 
Republicans of ISOO into power, were made to appear but 
rank treason in the eyes of then- Republican successors in 
1833 : and he v/ho was the truest friend of the South— aye, 
and of the constitution— her unappalled champion through 
all that terrible storm of popular indignation which beat so 
mercilessly on his devoted head, was termed a Cataline, 
while Webster was applauded as a Cicero. Yet, through- 
out the whole of that great controversy, no heart beat more 
warmly for the Union — fur that Union whose palladium 
was the constitution, than did that cf John C. Calhoun. 
He was the only great statesman of that day Avho appre- 
ciated its true beauty and worth. It was that high appre- 
ciation which made any infraction of its provisions appear 
to him of such great moment. It was that appreciation 
which caused him to cut loose from that triumphant party 
in which he stood so high, and to commence a career in 
which ease and preferment must necessarily be sacrificed, 
and a constant and embittered warfare against power and 
prejudice as inevitably be the result. He believed that the 
constitution was fast being nndermined— he struggled to 
re-instate it in its pristine vigor and supremacy over the 
Congress and the Executive. It has been, in fact, a great 
stru2"le for the last twentv-five years between the consti- 



54 

tution and the law-making power, in which he sided with 
the former. The plans and the remedies he proposed were 
not new. He contended that they existed in the very 
nature of the compact between the States, of which the 
constitution was the bond and the evidence ; and that the 
apostle of Republicanism and the great party which sup- 
ported him had endorsed them ; and he relied upon 
them to bring back the government to the constitutional 
track. 

If John C. Calhoun and South Carolina plotted treason 
to the Union in 1833, it follows as inevitably as effect fol- 
lows cause, that Jefferson and Madison — Virginia and Ken- 
tucky advocated treason and disunion in 1798 and 1799. 

These charges of treason and disunion followed Mr. 
Calhoun through life ; utterred with more or less vigor as 
party exigencies required. Upon the very verge of the 
grave, the deeply wronged statesman paused to vindicate 
himself from the calumny. I quote from his memorable 
reply to Mr. Foote : 

" JS'o'W, sir, as to the question of disuuiou. I talk very little about whether 
I am a union man, or not ; because I put no confidence in professions. I 
leave it to my acts to determine whether I am a union man, or not. Sir, 1 
challenge comparison with any man here — I challenge a comparison, by the 
Senator from Mississippi. I appeal to him, if there is any man, who has ever 
abstained more carefully from' what lie believed to be a violation of the Con- 
stitution ; or who has ever been more forward to arrest all infractions of the 
Constitution. It is in vain for a man to say that he loves the Union, if he 
does not protect the Constitution ; for that is the bond that made the Union . 
If I am to be judged by my acts, I trust I shall be found to be as firm a 
friend of the Union, as any man within it." 

This was the occasion, when uttering his defence against 
this calumny, as it v^^ere in articulo 77iortis, when memory, 
doubtless, by its magic power arrayed before him the 
many instances in which his attempts to serve his 
• country had been disingenuously distorted into disloy- 
alty to her institutions, by some selfish partizan whose 
schemes of personal aggrandizement were disturbed by 
them, that addressing the Senate, in all the grandeur and 
stern simplicity of indignant Truth, he appeared to all, as 



Mr. Webster has testified — "a Senator of Rome, when 
Rome survived." 

Submit Mr. Calhoun and all his great compeers, to the 
test of this simple and undeniably just rule of evidence, 
and his statue will at once be accorded a place in the 
Temple of Patriotism by the side of those of Washington 
and Jefferson ; while those of many, which have been 
placed there on account of the bold utterance" of some 
beautiful eulogy on the Union, will be ejected to make 
way for those of others whom they have aided to pro- 
scribe. 

True, Mr. Calhoun was an avowed, uncompromising, 
and ever vigilant foe to any government which might be 
built up on the frame of the Union, whose vitality and 
virtue had been destroyed by consolidation: and it would 
never have deterred him from seeking its destruction, that 
it had robed itself in the forms of constitutional law, stolen 
from the temple which it had desecrated. So was he a 
patriot, whose name should never be permitted to die, 
who, when Moscow fell beneath the prowess of Napoleon 
and gave needed shelter to his countless legions, fired her 
domes and her palaces — made the magnificent capitol 
of that empire but a smoldering mass of embers, and 
drove forth the ruthless invader upon the invisible but 
piercing bayonets of Icy Winter, more terribly fatal than 
an 'army with banners.' 

The character of no other public man in the United 
States, has been subjected to the test of such severe 
ordeals, as has that of Mr. Calhoun. Burr — a man of the 
most brilliant genius — varied acquirements and great popu- 
larity — wise in council, eloquent in debate, and firm in 
purpose, was crushed beneath the displeasure of Mr. Jeffer- 
son and one act of bad faith to his party. Gen. Jackson 
was a far more powerful man than the philosophic states- 
man of ISOO — stronger, whether considered with reference 
to th^ extent and intensity of his popularity — the power 
of his will — the antagonism of his nature — or the devotion 
of his party to his purposes. Yet Mr. Calhoun not only 



56 

stood unappalled and erect against the tremendous force of 
Gen. Jackson's popularity, aided by an alliance with the 
entire opposition — not only came forth unscathed from the 
odium which had been almost universally excited against 
him : but as if to stamp, in the most signal manner, the 
vitality of his own high nature, at a memorable period in 
the history of both parties he rescued from inevitable 
destruction his defeated, though not despairing, foe, whom 
even the old hero of the Hermitage was impotent to save ; 
and rolled back the exultant cohorts of the opposition that 
had rallied to, what they had fondly anticipated, an easy 
victory. 

Mr. Calhoun's official connection with the annexation of 
Texas to the United Stales grew out of his devotion to 
the South. He has since publicly announced that he con- 
sented to take the post of Secretary of State, solely from a 
sense of duty to the South. 

The rise of the Texan Republic, complete in all the 
powers and proportions of a well regulated government — 
Minerva like springing into being, fully armed, from the 
cleft head of the Mexican nation, was an event of import- 
ance ; but her peaceable and voluntary annexation to the 
Confederacy of the United States, by the solemnly given 
assent of her citizens, is certainly one of the most striking 
events in history. That annexation, or the complete in- 
dependence of Texas, was to the South a matter of the 
first importance. Once rejected in her overtures to the 
United Stales, the authorities of the young republic co- 
quetted with the cabinet of St. James to such an extent, 
as to arouse our government and people to the great risk 
of Texas becoming a dependant of Great Britain, and of 
that great power thus obtaining a strong position on our 
most exposed frontier. Public opinion, with singular una- 
nimity, pointed to Mr. Calhoun as the statesman best cal- 
culated to conduct the difficult and delicate negociation ; 
and Mr. Tyler accordingly tendered to him the office of 
Secretary of State. The successful termination of the 
negociation has been attributed to Mr. Calhoun, not by hi< 



57 

friends merely, but by the greatest and most vigorous oppo- 
nents of the measure. Texas is a witness of the fact. He 
was the chief actor in this extraordinary event — the quieti 
voluntary union oftvvo peaceful governments, for the bet- 
ter preservation of the liberties of each. Fit it was, in all 
respects, that this splendid deed — this union of two sove- 
reignties, by solemn compact submitted to each — depen- 
dent upon each for validity, should have been consumma- 
ted under the auspices of the brilliant State Rights states- 
man — that it should have been his destiny to have been 
chiefly instrumental, not only in adding another to the 
data by which ours is pi oven to be a Union of sovereign 
States, but also in introducing into the confederacy another 
State, which, ranging herself along side of her sister States, 
should bring all her power to bear in defence of the consti- 
tutional rights of the South. 

Connected with this event was another of very great im> 
portance in its bearing upon the slavery question. I allude 
to the Mexican war. Mr. Calhoun threw the whole weight 
of his influence against a preci]:)itate declaration of war 
with this republic. He distinguished between a state of 
hostilities existing between the troops of the commanders 
of either nation on a distant frontier and an authorised war 
between the two governments. He asked for time, that if 
possible war might, be avoided by a disavowal by the 
'Mexican authorities of the acts oi their General: and in 
the meantime was willing to give all necessary aid to pro- 
tect our frontier from further insult.. Fresh as the recol- 
lections of all are as to the overwhelming tide of popular 
opinion in favor of war, which pressed u[)on Congress with 
such irreat force, it must be conceded that Mr. Calhoun, in 
the stern and unpopular position taken by him in opposition 
to the course taken, exhibited a grandeur of will and pur- 
pose which excited the highest admiration. When lie sat 
down after delivering his views, so earnest — so tiuthful — 
so eloquent and thoroughly patriotic were they — so di- 
vested of any thing like faction — so deeply imbued with 
the loftiest sentiments — so elevated and courageous was his 



58 

bearing — so full of the moral sublime, in fact, was the great 
statesman, that a distinguished political antagonist then in 
the lobby of the Senate, observed : ''If ever there was an 
unflinching patriot, who cared more for his country than 
himself, that man is John C. Calhoun." It was indeed so. 
Mr. Calhoun saw coming events casting their dark shadows 
before. He dreaded a war with Mexico from the acqusi- 
tion of territory that would inevitably follow. He well 
knew — knew better than any other statesman of the day — 
that the temper of the Northern mind was unfit to legislate, 
in reference to such acquisitions, in justice to the South. 

The evils which he foresaw are upon us, even now, in 
all their terrible nature. The apple of discord has been 
thrown into our midst to add to the already existing hos- 
tility between the North and the South. It has served to 
concentrate all the elements of Northern aggression, and 
now overshadows every other question — for the first time 
arousing the South in some considerable degree from its 
criminal apathy — for the first time, in some degree, awaken- 
ing it to the mournful fact that party has been the Delilah 
in whose lap she has been lulled to sleep, and who has 
shorne her of her strength at this the hour of her need. 

Repeated attempts by unwise friends have been made to 
nominate Mr. Calhoun for the Presidency. I say by " un- 
wise friends ;" for in such a contest — a struggle for a party 
nomination, no man in the Union was weaker than Mr. * 
Calhoun : and for the very simple reason, that being a 
member of no party, it had been the high mission of his 
life to act as a check upon all parties — to foil them frequently 
in their dearest objects — objects deemed by him prejudicial 
to the best interests of the country. Hence that these 
attempts failed is no evidence that he had failed to accom- 
plish the great aims of his life. In reply to an imputation 
that he was actuated in his course by aspirations for the 
Presidency, Mr. Calhoun once said : 

" I appeal to every friend — to ray friends upon this floor, upon either side of 
the House — and to every one in the State of South Carolina, if my whole course 
of conduct has not been this — that I v'ould not accept the Presidency, unless 



59 

it comes to me by the voice of the American people, and then only from a sense 
of duty, and taken as an obligation. At my time of life, the Presidency is 
nothing— nothing ; and for many a long year, Mr. President, I have long aspired 
for an object far higher than the Presidency— that is doing my duty under all 
circumstances, in every trial, irrespective of psjrtics, and without regard to 
friendships or enmities, but simply in reference to the prosperity of the 
country." 

Though such high parly prejudices, as I have described, 
were ever thrown as a barrier between Mr. Calhoun and 
the public, he nevertheless exercised a strong political, 
and decidedly moral and intellectual, influence over the pub- 
lic mind. The very men that would turn a deaf ear to 
every suggestion, that the spirit of party was dividing and 
ruining the South, would read his speeches with avidity; 
and as far as it could be done without injury to party organ- 
ization, would adopt his plans and principles: and as party 
lines are not drawn in the moral and intellectual world, so 
this influence extended over a large number in both of the 
great political parties. There was, however, a truly con- 
servative body of men throughout the whole country, 
found scattered throughout the old parties, who, although 
retaining a connection with these parties; looked upon Mr. 
Calhoun as the wisest statesman of the age, and were ready 
at all times to co-operate with him in attempts to reform 
the government. They were men of clear heads, bold 
hearts and uncompromising natures — the State Rights men 
of the day. In their several communities, they were known 
as men of intelligence, and were the best of citizens— al- 
though connected with one or the otlicr of the great parties 
for particular prirposes, yet rarely ever having any thing to 
do with the organization of either. Apart from the question 
of the Presidency, these men every where exerted a con- 
trolling influence by reason of their liigh personal character. 
I have no doubt that to this fact is mainly attributable that 
other fact in our political history, made the theme of much 
complaint by party leaders, that so many active and able 
men have been found in Congress of the Calhoun stamp, 
representing a constituency who on all mere presidential 
matters were decidedly anti-Calhoun. 



60 

There is another very striking and peculiar feature in 
the influence exerted by Mr. Calhoun over the mind and 
morals of the age — that abiding impress of his own char- 
acter, which he stampt on that of all young men with 
whom he made a personal acquaintance. In many an in- 
stance, a single interview of a few hours of unreserved 
intercourse with Mr. Calhoun has served to imbue 3^oung 
men so thoroughly with his own spirit, that their future 
career received from it a strong bias in favor of the great 
principles which he maintained so eminently. It was no 
uncommon event of his life that young men have made his 
acquaintance and been admitted to his friendship, whose 
political connections. and bias were all antagonistic to those 
of Mr. Calhoun ; yet they have left his society his most 
ardent admirers, and through after life, in eminent sta- 
tions, have given unmistakeable evidence of the fount from 
which they have drawn their principles : and in this man- 
ner has the stream of Mr. Calhoun's moral and intellectual 
influence been silently though most efTeclually brought to 
bear upon the politics of the day. 

Mr. Webster, who*- had such excellent opportunities 
of knowing Mr. Calhouri well, thus remarked upon this 
feature in his character : "He delighted especially in con- 
versation and intercourse with young men. I suppose j 
there has been no man among us who had more winning 
manners in such an intercourse and conversation with men 
comparatively young, than Mr. Calhoun. I believe one 
great power in his character, in general, was his conver- 
sational talent." This is very true, but does not account 
for that marked and powerful influence, which, emanating 
from Mr. Calhoun, pervaded the young mind of the coun- 
try. Affinity is no less a law of mind than of physics. It 
was this affinity, in high moral purity, which attracted the 
young to Mr. Calhoun, and which made their society so 
delightful to the veteran statesman. He preserved to the 
latest moment of his life, the freshness of feeling which 
belon.? to ihe young. Holding himself aloof from those 
personal struggles which tend so much to excite grovelling 



s- 



61 

and unworthy passions, and to harden the heart — living a 
life of self-denial, his mind and iieart remained the seal of 
the most elevated sentiments. 

As a pnblic man, he was full of candor and truth — as a 
private man, he was affectionate, just and affable. He 
possessed that beautiful simplicity of manner — that artless- 
ness of mind — thai true benevolence — that perfect absence 
of egotism, which in vain sought for congenial inter- 
course with the great compeers of his day, but which found 
it in the young men of genius and high moral worth, who, 
sympathetically attracted, sought communion with such a 
spirit. 

When once within the sphere of his influence, every ed- 
ucated youth recognised, in the principles which he main- 
tained to be the true policy of government, the great fun- 
damental truths taught them in the elementary works on 
political economy and ethics, as the basis of their future 
self-education. An after acquaintance with politics assur- 
ed them of the beautiful truth and consistency of ]\Ir. Cal- 
houn's views with those vital principles — and tended to 
perpetuate in their hearts tbe influence which his personal 
characteristics had first planted there. 

Mr. Calhoun was singularly independent and selt^-reli- 
ant ; more so than any public m.an known to our history. 
He looked within for a judgment as to what was his duty, 
and he fearlessly and hopefully relied upon his own inex- 
haustible resources to sustain him in whatever conflict his 
course might bring bim. It has ot^ten been said to his pre- 
judice, that he sought to dictate to the South — to lead. 
Never was there a greater error. He consulted with but 
few — rarely ever with any one. And in such consultation, 
if there ever was a ditlerence between himself and his 
friends, wliile he yielded no well considered opinion, he 
never expected one to be yielded to him. 

Mr. Calhoun's style as a debater was remarkable for its 
sententiousness — the simplicity and clearness of its state- 
ments — the logic of its deductions — and its compressed 
energy. There was a beautiful harmony between his 



62 

intellect and manner. One was but the reflection .of the 
other — so truthful, natural and unaffected were they. Mr. 
Webster very justly observed: "The eloquence of Mr. 
Calhoun, or the manner of his exhibition of his sentiments 
in public bodies, was part of his intellectual character. It 
grew out of the qualities of his mind." And I may add 
that his manner partook of all the qualities of his mind. It 
was lofty, elevated, earnest, harmonizing with the great 
aims of his intellect. The heart was led captive by the one, 
while the other convinced the understanding. 

Mr. Calhoun's speeches exhibit, even in the reading, in 
a marked degree, all the characteristics of his mind and of 
the manner of its exhibition in debate ; and in reading the 
most striking and characteristic passages, one who has often 
heard him can almost fancy that he hears the tones of his 
voice and sees the majestic bearing of the orator. Those 
who have not had such an opportunity, however, can hard- 
ly ever expect to realize the true character of his eloquence. 
There are none like him amongst all our orators, confessed- 
ly eminent as they are. He seems to have chosen a diffe- 
rent model from those which our great orators have taken 
as their standards. An English writer thus describes the 
difference between Mr. Calhoun's oratory and that of his 
great cotemporaries : 

" His eloquence is free from the faults that are often ascribed to the oratory 
of American statesmen. It kad no verbiage — no pretension — no glitter — no 
clap-trap, in its composition. With such severity of logical precision, such ab- 
sence of superfluous ornament — such force and compression of language — such 
vehemence and majesty of intellectual movement, it would not be extravagant 
to characterise it as possessing something of tl^e antique Demosthenic gran- 
deur." 

His person and address were very striking. He was tall^. 
slender, and of most dignified and heroic bearing. He held 
his head erect, in most impressive majesty. His features 
were strong — his forehead low, but broad and angular — his 
cheek bones were prominent — his chin strong and massive, 
indicative of an iron energy. He had a wide mouth, 
with thin and compressed lips ; while his eyes were , 
large, piercing and brilliant. His whole countenance 
breathed decision, firmness and great mental activity. 



63 • 

His voice was clear, sonorous and indicative of earnest- 
ness and power, of purpose. His enunciation was short, 
quick, yet distinct and impressive. His gesture was ani- 
mated and appropriate, though rarely made. He stood 
erect, firm — his posture being natural and in one sense full 
of severity. His whole person, indeed, was alive with 
repressed action, yet fixed and immoveable as the premi- 
ses from which he argued. To sum up all, the stern ma- 
jesty of his erect and immoveable attitude — the severe, yet 
highly expressive cojuntenance — the flash of his brilliant 
eye — the compressed lip — the quick, trumpet-like tones of 
his voice — the suppressed passion, and energy of his whole 
being, mind and body -the lofty and elevated sentiments 
which welled up from his breast or from a perennial fount 
— the deep conviction of the truth of every word he uttered 
— all combining to set before the hearer, in a style 
of deepest impressiveness, the most brilliant thoughts- 
and the profoundest- wisdom, rendered ^,lr. Calhoun the 
most effective orator that ever addressed the Senate. I say 
the most eflective ; and, in using so strong a term of eulogy, 
speak with reference to the fact that during the last fifteen* 
years of U'hich he ^vTls a member of the Senate, owiiig to 
his peculiar position in that body — as the guardian of the 
constitution against party views, he was necessarily much 
oftener on the tloor than any other Senator : and never 
failed to command the most profound attention of 
that august body. The same remark cannot justly be 
made as to any other Anierican orator similarly situated. 

Many thousand years ago, in the classic days of Greece, 
a prisoner lay stretched upon the rack ; and at the bidding 
. of a noble looking old man, with bright eyes and blanched 
locks, a slave plied the torture. That old man was the 
painter Appellcs, and he was torturing an unhappy priso- 
ner given to him for the purpose by Alexander, m order to 
catch the true expression of intense agony, that he might 
transfer it to the canvass on which he was painting Titan 
chained to the rock, gnawed by vultures. A deep groan 
escaped the tortured wretch, in which his very soul cried 



64 

out in agony. " Ye Gods !" exclaimed Appelles, dashing 
down his pencil in despair, "Would that I could paint that 
groan.'' But it was gone — fleeting as the air, leaving but 
the remembrance of its heart-felt power and truth upon 
the ear that heard it. 

Even so do I despair of conveying to your minds' eye a 
correct picture of that intangible, yet impressive eloquence 
which enabled Mr. Calhoun, though always in a minority, 
to impress not only his views, but also his personal bear- 
ing — his action, so strongly upon a]l who heard hirn in 
any of his great eftorts. 

With Mr. Calhoun there was no distinction between 
public and private virtue. The great rules of right and 
wrong, which all acknowledge should govern the inter- 
course of individuals with each other — but which appear, 
as by general consent, to have been discarded from the 
code of political ethics, governed his conduct, both as an 
individual and as a statesman. It is a sad commentary on 
public life, that this should have made him a marked man, 
in the midst of his compeers. He was, indeed, singularly 
pure. Though passing through the fierce ordeal of a 
strife of forty years with the relentless spirit of party — in 
which political exigency demanded the destruction of his 
influence, calumny and detraction stood back in awe of the 
majesty of that character, which, whether considered as 
that of a statesman — of a citizen— or of the head of a 
family, was a model of Truth — Candor— and Justice. 

Though ever engrossed in thought and reflection on 
matters of the highest consideration, who ever approached 
Mr. Calhoun's presence, [instead of finding him, as might 
well have been expected, fenced in with that formal digni- 
ty usual witli men whose names are associated with im- 
portant events,] were at once charmed by a manner — unaf- 
fected, frank and easy — and whh a conversation .in which 
the artlessness and simplicity of childhood were beautifully 
blended with the experience and wisdom of age. 

However high towered the grandeur of his character as 
a statesman, it but harmonized with the elevated purity — 



» 



65 



the truthfalness and justice which marked his intercourse 
with society. It has been no less truthfully, than beauti- 
fully and impressively said, "His was the soul of Wash- 



ington. 



n 



I have now finished this sketch of that great South- 
erner, John C. Calhourjf Each of the many great events 
of his life affords material for much thought and reflection ; 
and I have not been able to compress what 1 thought strict 
justice required to be said of them within the brief 
limits of an address usual on such occasions. I confess, 
too, that my own feelings have warred against all attempts 
to feduce to greater brevity the views I have taken of his 
character. In times past, when the feelings and the preju- 
dices of the Union party in South Carolina ran high, 
none were more industrious than your speaker, on this occa- 
sion, in the unenviable task of strewing the path of the 
great statesman with nettles ; and grateful has been the 
privilege of thus publicly weeding them away from his 
grave, and old-mortality like of deepening the lines which 
record the virtues of a character which I, in common with 
the great mass of the people of the Union at that day, 
neither appreciated nor understood. 

But though feeling thus, I have endeavored to view and 
to describe Mr. Calhoun in the spirit of history ; and un- 
der a high appreciation of the remark of Senator Butler — 
" that the dignity of his whole character would rebuke any 
tone of remark which truth and judgment would not 
sanction." 

For the ttruh of all I have said, I appeal to the 
history of the country ; and I call to witness that late 
remarkable scene on the great field of his renown, when he 
fell in the assiduous discharge of his duty to the South. 
As Brutus said of Caesar: '-The question of his death is 
enrolled in the capitol: his glory not extenuated, wherein 
he was worthy." Around his bier, the cold and deserted 
tenement of genius and virtue, gathered the mighty and the 
good of our statesmen. A Clay was heard, in melting and 
silvery tones, to exhort his compeers — 



66 

"to be instructed by the eminent virtues and merits of his exalted character, 

and to be taught by his bright example to fulfill all our great public duties by 
the lights of our own judgment and the dictates of our own consciences, as he 
did, according to his honest and best conceptions of those duties, faithfully and 
to the last." 

A Webster took up the strain, and in deep and solemn 
tones — stern— severe — yet full o^pathos, said: 

" However, sir, he may have differed from others of us in his political opin- 
ions, or his political principles, those principles and those opinions will now 
descend to posterity under the sanction of a great name. He has lived long 
enough; he has dont enough, and he has done it so well, so successfully, so 
honorably as to connect himself for all time with the records of his country. 
He is now a historical character. Those of us who have known him will find 
that he has left upon our minds and our hearts a strong and lasting impression 
of his person, his character, and his public performances, which, while we live, 
will never be obliterated. We shall hereafter, I am sure, indulge in it as a 
grateful recollection, that we have been his cotemporaries — that we have seen 
him, and heard him and known him. We shall delight to speak of him to those 
who are rising up to fill our places. And when the time shall come when we 
ourselves shall go, one after another,- in succession, to our graves, we shall carry 
with us a deep sense of his genius and character, his honor and integrity, his 
amiable deportment in private life, and the purity of his exalted patriotism." 

And when these, with whose existence that of the great 
dead has been so long entwined as it were, had passed, a 
young Senator from our own young State approached and 
said that — 

" Alabama had always accorded due homage to his genius, and still more to 
that blameless purity of life which entitles him to the highest and noblest epi- 
taph which can be graven upon a mortal tomb. For more than forty years an 
active participant in the fierce struggles of party, and surrounded by those cor- 
rupting influences to which the politician is so often subjected, his personal 
character remained not only untarnished, but unsuspected. He walked tlu'ough 
the flames, and even the hem of his garment was unscorched." 

And Wisdom, and Virtue, and sage Experience stood 
around and said amen to the language of Truth. And the 
great antagonist of long years heard in silence, and stood in 
solemn attitude, with shaded countenance, buried in most 
profound, and it may be, most generous and sorrowing re- 
flection. And the dead was moved away from the scene of 
his triumphs, and now rests in the sorrowing bosom of the 
State which gave him birth, and whose name the mighty 
genius of Calhoun will hallow for all time to come ! 



67 

But though South Carolina shall be the sole guardiau of 
his mortal remains, his precepts and example belong to the 
world. Let us seize upon them as a rich inheritance ; and 
learn thereby that, both as men and citizens, we shall 
best fulfill our duties to the present, and our obligations to 
the future, by a strict adherence to 

^' Truth, Justice and the Constitution/' 



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